NOVEL 1XN AND NXN INTEGRATED OPTICAL SWITCHES USING SELF-IMAGING MULTIMODE GAAS/ALGAAS WAVE-GUIDES

We report the demonstration of novel multiway GaAs/AlGaAs electro-optic waveguide switches which incorporate self-imaging planar multimode waveguide splitters and recombiners interconnected by single-mode guides. Each device consists of one or more input guides, a multiway splitter, an array of individually addressed electro-optic waveguide phase shifters, a multiway recombiner, and an array of output guides. By controlling the voltage applied to the electro-optic guides, light from any one input guide can be switched to any one output guide. We present experimental results for 1 x 10 and 10 x 10 devices. Typical values for switching uniformity, maximum crosstalk, and insertion loss were +/-9%, -10 dB, and -12 dB, respectively.