Holographic switching between single-mode fibers based on electrically addressed nematic liquid-crystal gratings with high deflection accuracy

Nicole Wolffer; Bruno Vinouze; Philippe Gravey

doi:10.1117/12.308948

22 May 1998 Holographic switching between single-mode fibers based on electrically addressed nematic liquid-crystal gratings with high deflection accuracy

Nicole Wolffer, Bruno Vinouze, Philippe Gravey

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3490, Optics in Computing '98; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.308948
Event: Optics in Computing '98, 1998, Bruges, Belgium

Abstract

Liquid crystals (LC) are frequently used as active holographic elements for beam deflection applications. Thanks to their small response time, ferroelectric liquid crystals are mostly studied for telecommunication applications [ 1 ,2] .However, nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) have a very good technological maturity and easily allow multi-phase level diffractive structures with high diffraction efficiencies [3,5]. Thus, NLCs constitute an attractive option for applications like routing where relatively slow (tens of milliseconds) reconfiguration times are sufficient. Previously, we reported devices operating in the 1.5 tm window, with a diffraction efficiency of 70% for deflection angles up to 4° [61. This communication deals with the design of N x N reconfigurable interconnects using this type of devices. The proposed solution satisfies the two major constraints such system has to fulfill, namely the accurate control of the deflection angle needed when connecting single mode fibres, and the finite precision achievable with electrically addressed holograms. Even though the highest interconnection capacity will be afforded by using two-dimensional deflection, our analysis will mainly focus on onedimensional deflection because the key elements of the systems (arrays of single mode fibres and high resolution NLC spatial light modulator SLM ) are presently easier to realise.

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Nicole Wolffer, Bruno Vinouze, and Philippe Gravey "Holographic switching between single-mode fibers based on electrically addressed nematic liquid-crystal gratings with high deflection accuracy", Proc. SPIE 3490, Optics in Computing '98, (22 May 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.308948

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