Abstract

Simple Pb_1-x La_x(Zr_y Ti_z)_1-x/4 O3 (PLZT) electrooptic ceramic photonic device arrays for surface-normal operation have been developed for application to polarization-controller arrays and Fabry-Pérot tunable filter arrays. These arrays are inserted in trenches cut across fiber arrays. Each element of the arrayed structure corresponds to one optical beam and takes the form of a cell. Each sidewall of the cell (width: 50-80 µm) is coated to form an electrode. The arrays have 16 elements at a pitch of 250 µm. The phase modulator has about 1 dB of loss and a half-wavelength voltage of 120 V. A cascade of two PLZT phase modulators (thickness: 300 µm), with each attached to a polyimide lambda/2 plate (thickness:15 µm), is capable of converting an arbitrary polarization to the transverse-electric (TE) or transverse-magnetic (TM) polarization. The response time is 1 µs. The Fabry-Pérot tunable filters have a thickness of 50 µm . The front and back surfaces of each cell are coated by 99%-reflective mirror. The free spectral range (FSR) of the filters is about 10 nm, tunable range is about 10 nm, loss is 2.2 dB, and finesse is 150. The tuning speed of these devices is high, taking only 1 µs.

© 2005 IEEE

PLZT electrooptic shutters: applications

J. Thomas Cutchen, James O. Harris, and George R. Laguna
Appl. Opt. 14(8) 1866-1873 (1975)

Experimental investigation of optical beam deflection based on PLZT electro-optic ceramic

Qing Ye, Zuoren Dong, Ronghui Qu, and Zujie Fang
Opt. Express 15(25) 16933-16944 (2007)

Strain-Biased PLZT Input Devices (Page Composers) for Holographic Memories and Optical Data Processing

H. N. Roberts
Appl. Opt. 11(2) 397-404 (1972)

Longitudinal electrooptic effects in slim-loop and linear PLZT ceramics

Y. Fogel, N. Bar-Chaim, and A. Seidman
Appl. Opt. 19(10) 1609-1617 (1980)

Compact optical-fiber variable attenuator arrays with polymer-network liquid crystals

Katsuhiko Hirabayashi, Masato Wada, and Chikara Amano
Appl. Opt. 40(21) 3509-3517 (2001)