Abstract

Free space optical switches are very attractive because of their high-density interconnections, transparency to signal format and bit rate. Recently, multistage optical switches using liquid crystal (LC) cells have been demonstrated at the telecommunication wavelengths [1] [2] [3], By alternately cascading polarisation controller arrays (LC cells) and routing elements (bireffingent plates, polarising beam splitters, prisms, diffractive optical elements), a N input N output optical switch can be realized. To create an optical switch with low insertion loss and good crosstalk, we must resolve some technical issues such as the development of low-loss and high- contrast polarisation controllers.

© 1997 Optical Society of America