Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 22 is indefinite because line 3 recites "a pump source comprising configured to". It appears that there is text missing between "comprising" and "configured".
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 17-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Azhar et al. (article in Optics Express, February 2013, citation "JJR" in the 5/30/2023 information disclosure statement).
Claim 17: Azhar discloses a method for generating broadband radiation, the method comprising:
generating, by a pump source ("amplified Ti:sapphire laser system", Section 2), pump radiation comprising a plurality of radiation pulses ("delivering pulses of duration 140 fs") having a pulse energy of 1 µJ or less ("the maximum pulse energy launched into the core was 450 nJ", i.e. 0.45 µJ) and a pulse duration between 10 femtoseconds and 10 picoseconds (140 fs); and
receiving the pump radiation at an input end of a hollow core fiber ("kagomé HC-PCF"), the hollow core fiber comprising a hollow core ("core", central hexagonal region in fig. 1) and a cladding (lattice around the central hexagonal region) surrounding the hollow core, the hollow core having a pressurized gas (argon, Abstract) therein (Title, fig. 2, first sentence of Section 5, etc.), and a diameter of the hollow core region is in a range of 10 µm to 30 µm (18 µm, first sentence of Section 2) and dimensioned such that the radiation pulses have a soliton order that is higher than 16 ("the soliton order is ~27 for 450 nJ pulse energy at 25 bar", Section 4) so as to broaden a spectrum of the pump radiation using modulation instability as the pump radiation propagates along the hollow-core fiber; and
providing output broadband radiation from an output end of the hollow core fiber ("emission of dispersive waves", fig. 2).
Claim 18: The diameter of the hollow core region is in a range from 16 µm to 22 µm (18 µm).
Claim 19: The pulse duration is in a range from 100 fs to 500 fs (140 fs).
Claim 20: The pressure of the gas is configured to provide a spectrum of the output broadband radiation having a low-wavelength cut-off in a range from 350 nm to 450 nm, given a particular hollow core region diameter (fig. 1).
Claim 21: The hollow core fiber is a hollow core photonic crystal fiber (Abstract; "HC-PCF" in description).
Response to Arguments
The specification objection and claim rejections of the 3/10/2026 action were overcome by the 3/27/2026 response. Several claims have been rejected under a different reference in the instant action.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 and 3-15 remain allowed as set forth in a previous action.
Contact Information
Examiner: 571-272-2360
Examiner's direct supervisor: 571-272-2397
Official correspondence by fax: 571-273-8300
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/Michael Stahl/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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