Integrated Optical Switches.

摘要

Integrated optical switches for multimode fiber-optic communication systems have been investigated theoretically and experimentally. Thick film (20 to 100 lambda) optical waveguide structures are judged optimum for the switching devices. The first part of this report shows how the authors arrived at the thick-film technology approach. The principle of optical brightness conservation imposes theoretical limits on the maximum energy transfer between various fiber and film geometries. The consequences of the coupling limits on fiber-optic systems are spelled out in Sec. 2. Two types of fiber-optic switches, refractive and diffractive, are described in Sec. 3. Experimental results are presented for acoustooptic Bragg devices, and electro-optic multi-prism devices. Section 4 presents a detailed computer analysis of a phase modulation switch, which consists of a relative phase shifter for TE and TM modes (an electro-optic polarization rotator) and a passive beam-discriminator.