Abstract

Similar to guided-wave acousto-optic (AO) interactions¹ in which the surface acoustic waves (SAWs) induce a moving optical grating through the photoelastic effect, guided-wave magneto-optic (MO) interactions result from the moving optical grating induced by the magnetostatic waves (MSW) through the Faraday and the Cotton-Mouton effects.² Of particular interest to us is a noncollinear coplanar geometry² in YIG-GGG waveguides,³ as shown in Fig. 1 in which an incident guided-light wave is Bragg diffracted and mode-converted (TE- to TM-mode and vice versa). The Bragg-diffracted light is scanned in the waveguide plane as the frequency of the MSW is tuned. Analogous to the AO Bragg diffraction in which the resulting modulator is called the AO Bragg cell, the resulting MO modulator is called the MO Bragg cell.²

© 1990 Optical Society of America