Abstract:
A light modulator comprises a stack of a wave guide layer (11) and an adjacent layer (12) normally exhibiting a refractive index smaller than that of the wave guide layer, at least one of these layers being formed of a material whose refractive index changes by application of energy. An energy applicator is provided at least in one of these layers, and a dielectric grating (G) is positioned at the surface of the adjacent layer (12) over a section where energy is applied by the energy applicator. A drive circuit is provided for energizing the energy applicator and causing a change in refractive index to arise in the wave guide layer (11) and/or the adjacent layer (12) so that wave guided inside of the wave guide layer (11) is radiated out of the stack by interaction with the dielectric grating (G). In a wave guide device, the wave guide layer (11) is formed of a thermo-optic material in which the thermal coefficient of refractive index is zero or negative, and the adjacent layer (12) is formed of a thermo-optic material exhibiting a positive thermal coefficient of refractive index.
Abstract in simplified Chinese:本发明乃关于以方向性耦合器结构型式之多波长选择开关。方向性耦合器结构包含二个波导,所安排之波导展现不同之有效绕射指数。在一部分之波导安排成彼此接近、俾在第一波导中之光场可重叠第二光波导、反之亦然,在该部分,至少安排二个光栅以供同方向耦合。该光栅之安排成彼此隔离。本发明尚包含一方法供经由使用该多波长选择开关来切换波长频道。
Abstract:
The invention relates to an external-cavity tunable laser (60) system configured to emit radiation at a laser emission wavelength, the tunable laser system comprising an external cavity having a plurality of cavity modes. The external cavity includes a gain medium (61) to emit an optical beam into the external cavity, and a tunable optical resonant grating filter (66;20;40) reflecting the optical beam at a resonant wavelength. The filter comprises a diffraction grating (23;52), a planar waveguide (28;46) optically interacting with the diffraction grating (23;52), the diffraction grating and the planar waveguide forming a resonant structure, and a light transmissive material having a selectively variable refractive index to permit tuning of the filter. The light transmissive material is a liquid crystal material or a thermo-optical material having a thermo-optic coefficient of not less than 10 -4 /°C so as to form a tunable cladding layer (30;43) for the planar waveguide. The planar waveguide (28;46) is placed between the diffraction grating (23;52) and the tunable cladding layer (30;43).
Abstract:
An electrooptical device is provided comprising at least one substrate(1), at least one pair of electrodes(2) and at least one layer of an electrooptical material. The electrooptical material represents an optically anisotropic thin crystal film(3) and contains molecules having aromatic rings and possessing a lattice with an interplanar spacing (Bragg's reflection) of 3.4 ± 0.2 Å along one of optical axes. The electrooptical material(3) has anisotropic refractive indices and/or anisotropic absorption coefficients that are depended on an electric field strength.
Abstract:
A high-performance electro-optic intensity modulator using two polymeric waveguides (22 and 24) having a high extinction-ratio modulation process is implemented by the coupling-out effect of induced grating modulation. The upper modulating electrode (32) has a grating pattern overlapping an edge of the coupling-out waveguide (24) along its length. The two waveguides can be either single-mode or multi-mode, even highly multimode. The inducing of a modulated grating-coupler in a waveguide channel makes the coupling between two waveguides become unidirectional and the coupling efficiency can be achieved to a very high value in theory. The two waveguide channels in this intensity modulator may have large dimensions, so the device can support either single-mode or multi-mode operation. The electro-optic waveguide intensity modulator may be used either as a single optical modulator/switch or as a waveguide modulator/switch array for fiber-optic communication. The modulator can also be implemented in an electro-optic crystal such as LiNbO3. The polymeric waveguide intensity modulator may be thermo-optically modulated.
Abstract:
An integrated optics non linear coupler presents on a surface a first and a second waveguide (2, 3) coupled contradirectionally by means of a distributed feedback grating (10). The first waveguide (2) defines an input port (4) and a first output port (5) of the device (transmission output) and the second waveguide (3) defines a second output port (6) of the device (reflection output). By means of an optical control signal injected into the device together with an information signal, the device can be brought to conditions of non-linear operation, thus making the grating (10) switch from transmitting to reflecting behaviour or vice versa with respect to a given wavelength.