OPTICAL SWITCH, OPTICAL SERIAL-PARALLEL CONVERTER, PARALLEL BIT DELAY VARIABLE/WAVELENGTH CONVERSION CIRCUIT, AND OPTICAL TIME SWITCH

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical switch which consumes low power, switches with high speed, and is highly practical and low-loss by making the optical switch be a self-hold type.;SOLUTION: The optical switch comprises a quartz substrate 101, first and second input waveguides 102a, 102b, a first directional coupler 103, first and second arm waveguides 104a, 104b of a Mach-Zehnder interference circuit, a second directional coupler 105, first and second output waveguides 106a, 106b, and a phase change material portion 100. A control light (for transition from an amorphous state to a crystal state) pulse (with a pulse width 20 ns, pulse intensity 5 mW) with 0.78 micron wavelength is made to irradiate the phase change material portion. A phase change material portion 109 is subjected to a phase change to a crystalline state with control light pulse irradiation, and the optical switch is subjected to transition to a bar state.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI