| 摘要 |
<p>An electromagnetically controlled optical switch (100) having a plurality of optical inputs (101). An optical signal at each input (101) is spatially decomposed into two coparallel, orthogonally polarized beams by a birefringent element (130). An array (140) of field-controlled polarization rotators are positioned in the paths of the decomposed light beams so that the polarization of the emergent beam pairs are set to be at one of the orthogonal states (i.e., both beams are either vertical or horizontally polarized). A following birefringent element (150) spatially routes the light beam pairs based upon their polarization. A second array (160) of polarization rotators follows the second birefringent element (150) and is set to be in the opposite state from the first array (140), such that the emergent beams are orthogonal to their input states before they entered the first polarization rotator (140). The beams are combined by a firefringent element (170) to form a plurality of combined beams that are coupled to output ports (102, 103).</p> |
