Abstract: A two-ring optical buffer comprising a first ring operatively connected to a waveguide and a second ring, the second ring being operatively connected to only the first ring, the second ring and the first ring having a circumferential ratio substantially equal to 2m, where m is an integer. A ratio of resonance splitting over resonance broadening may be approximately 0.6.

Abstract: An oval resonator device is provided which includes an oval resonator having straight portions for coupling signals from external sources. The straight portions of the oval resonator minimize phase mismatch in a coupled signal. The oval resonator device can be used in various devices including channel-dropping filters, switches, tunables filters, phase modulators, and 1×N multiplexers/demultiplexers.

Abstract: A device is provided for demultiplexing a DWDM composite light signal into distinct signal channels or frequencies. The device includes a plurality of resonators, which each acts to slice an incoming signal into two equal parts. The free spectral range characteristics (FSR) of the resonators are successively increased by an even multiple to achieve the slicing effect. As a result, the resonators of the subject invention can be formed with relatively low finesse values because of the slicing effect.

Abstract: A nanophotonic directional coupler is disclosed for transferring light from one waveguide to a second waveguide. The directional coupler is formed within relatively small dimensional parameters and can be formed to accommodate light signals of both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations.

Abstract: A strongly confined ridge waveguide that provides substantially reduced polarization sensitivity, without significant compromise for other waveguide characteristics such as, for example, single-mode condition, and low propagation and bending losses for the fundamental mode. The present invention considers waveguide material composition and thickness for guiding and cladding layers, bend radius, ridge width and etch depth at which the modal indices of the fundamental TE and TM modes are equal. With those parameters, the losses (e.g., the imaginary parts of the modal indices) of the fundamental and first-order modes may be calculated. By considering the previously mentioned criteria, a low-loss, single-mode ridge waveguide may be constructed in accordance with the present invention having losses of the fundamental modes in the range of less than approximately 1.

Abstract: A polarization diversity scheme for managing the polarization dependence of a micro-ring resonator which employs two resonators serially arranged and constructed to separately filter transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarization components of a predetermined wavelength in a randomly polarized DWDM optical signal, and to recombine the separately filtered components prior to output from an optical component employing the inventive polarization diversity scheme.

Abstract: An optical modulator that includes a resonator near one arm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and that increases the optical length of that arm so as to introduce a phase-shift in an optical signal propagating in that arm when compared to an optical signal propagating in the other arm of the interferometer. The resonator also increases the electro-optic interaction between an electrical signal (i.e., the source of information in a modulated signal) and the optical devices (e.g., waveguides). A modulator constructed in accordance with the present invention is thus physically small than prior art modulators and requires a significantly reduced drive voltage to impart information on an optical signal.

Abstract: A strongly confined ridge waveguide that provides substantially reduced polarization sensitivity, without significant compromise for other waveguide characteristics such as, for example, single-mode condition, and low propagation and bending losses for the fundamental mode. The present invention considers waveguide material composition and thickness for guiding and cladding layers, bend radius, ridge width and etch depth at which the modal indices of the fundamental TE and TM modes are equal. With those parameters, the losses (e.g., the imaginary parts of the modal indices) of the fundamental and first-order modes may be calculated. By considering the previously mentioned criteria, a low-loss, single-mode ridge waveguide may be constructed in accordance with the present invention having losses of the fundamental modes in the range of less than approximately 1.