Abstract

Schemes for using waveguide couplers with three or more guides for switching, power dividing or combining, and lensing applications have been proposed.^1,2 The switches could perform improved sampling and filtering operations; the lens can combine the power from coupled laser arrays into a single guide. Passive three-guide couplers have been investigated³; however, the propagation constants of the guides must be detunable to perform many of the above operations. In this work, GaAs optical three-guide couplers with symmetric electrooptic detuning have been investigated for the first time, we believe, to characterize their potential performance as switches and tenses. The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions based on effective-index slab models of the structures.³

© 1988 Optical Society of America