Abstract

Wideband optical signals can be switched under electical control using directional couplers between Ti:LiNbO₃ waveguides on a planar LiNbO₃ crystal [1]. The basic switching element is a directional coupler with two active inputs and two active cutouts. Depending on the control voltage at the junction of the two waveguides, either of the two inputs can be coupled to either of the two outputs. Several architectures have been proposed to construct an NxN (N > 2) switch with the 2 x 2 directional coupler as the basic element [2-4]. These architectures are analogs of similar architectures known in electronic switching [5]. However, due to the difference in characteristics of the electronic and optical switching elements, performance and optimization of the optical architectures is significantly different.

© 1987 Optical Society of America