Hiromitsu Yanagimoto

Coaxial Configuration of the Gating and Signal Light for a Switching Device of a Dye-Dissolved Polymer Film.

New optical switching devices aimed at the post-liquid-crystal market are currently expected to emerge. We have developed an all-optical system in which the signal light was controlled by the gating light using a thin-film device composed of organic nanoparticles dispersed in a polymer film. Coaxial gating and signal laser beams are focused together onto the thin-film device; this configuration is essential in the present work. The signal light of 694 nm wavelength was switched from a higher transmittance state to a lower transmittance state by irradiating 633-nm-wavelength gating light where the signal light was deflected by a thermal lens temporarily formed by the gating light. The all-optical switching device using the thermal lens method in a nanoparticle-dye-dispersed thin film is the first attempt at using a solid-state system instead of a liquid system currently under investigation, and sub-microsecond operation has been attempted with the organic device.