Kim Leong Tan

Holographic optical switching: the "ROSES" demonstrator

The design, assembly, and performance of a prototype 1/spl times/8 free-space switch demonstrator using reconfigurable holograms are reported. Central to the switch fabric is a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) on silicon spatial light modulator (SLM) deposited with a 540/spl times/1 array of highly reflective and planar mirror strips. The input and output ports of the switch are fabricated as a linear array of silica planar waveguides connected to single-mode fibers, and the holographic beam-steerer operates without the need for adjustment or dynamic alignment. The waveguide array and the single Fourier transform lens for the 2f holographic replay system are housed in an opto-mechanical mount to provide stability. The switch operates at 1.55 /spl mu/m wavelength and has a designed optical bandwidth of >60 nm. The first measured insertion loss and crosstalk figures are 16.9 dB and -19.1 dB, respectively. Improvements in SLM performance, the use of new addressing schemes and the introduction of better alignment techniques are expected to improve these figures considerably. The preliminary performance of a 3/spl times/3 optical crossconnect is also presented to show that this technology is scalable to N/spl times/N switching fabrics.

Dynamic holography for optical interconnections. II. Routing holograms with predictable location and intensity of each diffraction order

An analysis of dynamic phase-only holograms, described by fractional notation and recorded onto a pixelated spatial light modulator (SLM) in a reconfigurable optical beam-steering switch, is presented. The phase quantization and arrangement of the phase states and the SLM pixelation and dead-space effects are decoupled, expressed analytically, and simulated numerically. The phase analysis with a skip-rotate rule reveals the location and intensity of each diffraction order at the digital replay stage. The optical reconstruction of the holograms recorded onto SLMs with rectangular pixel apertures entails sinc-squared scaling, which further reduces the intensity of each diffraction order. With these two factors taken into account, the highest values of the nonuniform first-order diffraction efficiencies are expected to be 33%, 66%, and 77% for two-, four-, and and eight-level one-dimensional holograms with a 90% linear pixel fill factor. The variation of the first-order diffraction efficiency and the relative replay intensities were verified to within 1 dB by performing the optical reconstruction of binary phase-only holograms recorded onto a ferroelectric liquid crystal on a silicon SLM.

A COMPARISON OF THE EFFICIENCY AND CROSSTALK OF QUATERNARY AND BINARY PHASE-ONLY HOLOGRAMS BASED ON FERROELECTRIC LIQUID CRYSTALS (FLC)

Abstract The benefits of employing a quaternary phase-only hologram, programmed onto a silicon backplane Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) are evaluated with respect to insertion loss and crosstalk isolation between two single-mode fibre ports. It is shown that insertion loss for a binary phase hologram with current FLCs, is comparable to that of quaternary phase holograms utilising deformed-helix (DH) FLCs. Its worst-case crosstalk performance is no worse than that of a quaternary phase hologram for a typical regular fibre array design.

Compact and efficient femtosecond lasers

The development of femtosecond (fs) lasers has continued rapidly since the demonstration of fs Ti:Sapphire systems in 1989. Recent research has yielded lasers which offer greatly enhanced performance in all areas. In this document we describe the development of femtosecond lasers with electrical to optical efficiency > 14%, pulse repetition frequencies > 4GHz and compact and stable cavities. We further outline the use of such lasers for the generation of high power visible femtosecond pulses and their application within systems environments for ultrahigh speed data communications, ultrafast optical switching and optical analogue to digital conversion. We also describe progress in the development of femtosecond lasers based on both active and passive semiconductor quantum dot components.