MEMS gratings for nondispersive optical phase modulation

This paper reports a broadband nondispersive optical phase modulation method using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The proposed method utilizes in-plane translational motions of MEMS micro- grating elements to produce phase shifts in the diffracted light beams. The phase shift is dependent only on the ratio of the grating in-plane displacement to its period, and thus independent of incident wavelength. The modulation method may be useful in many multispectral applications including steering a broadband light in an optical phased array, routing spectrally encoded signals in a fiber optical communication network and manipulating chromatic light in an optical imaging system.