Abstract: An electrolyte for use in a capacitor. The electrolyte comprising a solvent; a salt comprising a first anion and a first cation; and an additive. The additive is provided in a sufficient quantity to modify a voltage differential across an electric double layer associated with at least one electrode of said capacitor such that said voltage differential is closer to a predetermined voltage breakdown limit for the electrolyte and said at least one electrode than a voltage differential across an electric double layer associated with said at least one electrode and a further electrolyte comprising said solvent and said salt but no additive. A capacitor comprising first and second electrodes and the aforementioned electrolyte. Methods for optimising an electrolyte for use in a capacitor and manufacturing optimised capacitor systems are also presented.

Abstract: A monolithic waveguide/MEMS switch is disclosed that has a waveguide portion and a MEMS mirror portion fabricated on a single substrate, such as a as a silicon-on-insulator wafer. The monolithic waveguide/MEMS switch adjusts the phase of an optical signal by varying the position of one or more moveable mirrors. The mirror portion includes a mirror having a reflective surface that is attached to at least one MEMS actuator to achieve in-plane motion of the mirror (moves parallel to a plane of said at least one waveguide). In one implementation, the MEMS actuator is embodied as a known comb drive actuator. The phase adjustment techniques of the present invention may be employed in various optical devices, including wavelength selective optical switches that support multiple optical channels.

Abstract: An antenna comprises a resonator and a waveguide. The resonator comprises at least one body having a negative effective electrical permittivity or a negative magnetic permeability when a resonance is excited therein by electromagnetic radiation lying in some portion of the microwave spectrum. A termination of the waveguide is situated adjacent the resonator. The resonator is conformed such that at the resonance, there is efficient coupling between the resonator and the waveguide.

Abstract: An optical performance monitor (OPM) adapted to (i) sample an autocorrelation function corresponding to an optical signal transmitted in an optical network and (ii) based on the sampling, characterize two or more impairments concurrently present in the optical signal. In one embodiment, the OPM has an optical autocorrelator (OAC) coupled to a signal processor (SP). The OAC receives the optical signal from the network, generates two or more samples of its autocorrelation function, and applies said samples to the SP. The SP processes the samples and generates two or more signal metrics. Based on the signal metrics and reference data corresponding to the impairments, the SP then obtains a measure of each of the impairments.

Abstract: An optical device has at least one waveguide with at least one adjacent resonator, where the distance between the resonator and the waveguide can be controllably adjusted to change the optical coupling between the resonator and the waveguide. When implemented as part of an interferometer, the ability to adjust the waveguide/resonator distance—and thereby the optical coupling between them—provides a mechanically tunable interferometer.

Abstract: A high-sensitivity signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) determining apparatus measures the in-band SNR of an optical data signal by detecting and demodulating the optical signal and analyzing a narrow bandwidth of the resulting electrical data spectrum at half the data clock frequency, or more generally, a predetermined frequency equal to a multiple M of one-half the clock frequency, fclk/2, where M is an integer equal to or greater than one, may be used. When the optical signal is a WDM signal, a tunable filter isolates a single channel for detection. The detected electrical signal is subjected to both an in-phase and quadrature narrowband RF demodulation using a local oscillator at precisely half the clock frequency. Using this technique, the magnitude of the data portion of the optical signal becomes the in-phase component and the magnitude of the noise present in the optical signal becomes the quadrature component.