| 摘要 |
<p>An optical fiber switch (10) in accordance with the present invention includes an optical fiber (12), a gate signal generating system (18), and a coupling system (14). The optical fiber (12) has a birefringence between 10?-5 and 10-6¿ and an effective area of at least 40 square microns. The generating system (18) generates a gating signal having a power level which induces non-linear birefringence in the optical fiber (12) causing an input signal in the optical fiber (12) to switch polarization modes. The coupling system (14) couples the input signal and the gating signal into the optical fiber (12). The optical fiber (12) in the optical fiber switch (10) is designed to minimize non-linear effects which would degrade an input signal in the optical fiber switch (10). In particular, the optical fiber switch (10) is designed to reduce the amount of power required by the gating signal to switch the input signal in the optical fiber (12), thus reducing the possibility of fiber fuse and the generation of higher order solitons through Raman effects.</p> |
