Design and Construction of Apparatus for Optical Switch Evaluation

摘要

The goal of this effort was to develop apparatus for evaluation of opticalswitches relevant to digital optical computing. We state the basic aspects of optical switch evaluation (OSE) and describe appropriate general apparatus and procedures we have developed, which retains adequate flexibility to accommodate a wide variety of switches. We anticipated that such flexibility would be essential because existing switches, and ones under development, have widely varying characteristics. Our concept of the general characteristics of OSE has led us to develop an apparatus which will allow us to evaluate such switches. This report first describes the general concepts of optical switch evaluation together with the characteristics of an apparatus appropriate to implementing discrete components of such an apparatus, and progress in switch development.