OPTICAL SWITCHING, AND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR VARIABLE OPTICAL ATTENUATION

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a switch to add or subtract a signal transfer line so as to determine the route of a signal in the field of integrated optics.

SOLUTION: The optical switching apparatus is used to convert M input signals into N output signals, wherein each of M and N is equal to or larger than one, and the apparatus includes: a mode division multiplexer to join M input signals to a first multi-mode signal having M initial modes; a mode converter to convert the first multimode signal into a second multi-mode signal having N converted modes; and a mode division demultiplexer to separate the second multi-mode signal into N output signals. The converter can be activated as controllable so as to separate the N converted modes into N output signals by the demultiplexer in accordance with a desired scheme.

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