Abstract

The concept of an absorption modulated Asymmetric Fabry-Perot(AFP) etalon has been reported and demonstrated by several authors^1–3, all based on electro-optic modulation. These devices show promise as suitable candidates for optical switches and optical processing elements required for optical computing. They exhibit the high contrast ratios necessary but have a rather high insertion loss and contacting these devices in large scale arrays may prove to be a difficult problem. We report switching in an Asymmetric Fabry-Perot etalon which relies on optical modulation only. The device exhibits a high contrast ratio with low input power and at higher powers has almost no associated insertion loss.

© 1991 Optical Society of America