Wavelength switching and routing using absorption and resonance

Author

Little, B.E. ; Haus, H.A. ; Foresi, J.S. ; Kimerling, L.C. ; Ippen, E.P. ; Ripin, D.J.

Author_Institution

Res. Lab. of Electron., MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Volume

10

Issue

6

fYear

1998

fDate

6/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

816

Lastpage

818

Abstract

A resonator side coupled to a pair of waveguides can switch an optical signal between two ports by means of absorption. The absorptive mechanism is used to suppress the resonant power transfer, rather than to promote loss. Thus, the input signal only suffers small attenuation, provided that the mode volumes of the resonators can be made small enough. Multiply-coupled resonators lead to improved crosstalk performance for both the ON and OFF switched states. The performance of such devices are analyzed analytically, and universal switching curves are derived.

Keywords

electro-optical switches; integrated optics; light absorption; optical communication equipment; optical losses; optical resonators; optical waveguides; telecommunication network routing; OFF switched states; ON switched states; absorption; absorptive mechanism; improved crosstalk performance; input signal; mode volumes; multiply-coupled resonators; optical signal; resonance; resonant power transfer; resonator side coupling; small attenuation; universal switching curves; wavelength routing; wavelength switching; Absorption; Optical attenuators; Optical coupling; Optical crosstalk; Optical resonators; Optical switches; Optical waveguides; Performance analysis; Resonance; Wavelength routing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.681495

Filename

681495