Performance of photonic switching systems based on electro-optic volume holographic diffraction gratings

7 September 2000

proceedings article
Published by SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng

p. 38-47
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.399393

Abstract

We report on free-space photonic switches that are based on switched volume holographic diffraction grating for RF and telecommunications applications. For example, a cascade of n independently controlled electro-optic (EO) gratings can be configured in a binary tree structure to route a free-space optical carrier to on of 2ⁿ possible output channels. These gratings are comprised of liquid crystal composite materials, which exhibit low loss, high speed, and high switching contrast. Thus, this switching technology enables the construction of compact photonic switching systems with the potential for low insertion loss and low crosstalk. In this paper we describe grating based systems that are fanout capable, due to the inherent analog nature of the switched grating materials. Finally, we present the performance characteristics of the monolithic photonic switching systems constructed from arrays of switched gratings.

Keywords

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