All-optical switch apparatus using a nonlinear etalon.

摘要

An all-optical switch apparatus having an optical gate which is unitarily composed of a nonlinear etalon (33) and a pair of GRIN lenses (25, 35), or a nonlinear etalon and a GRIN lens, and having collimating GRIN lenses (23, 27), each of which guides a signal beam (PS) and a control beam (PC) to the optical gate. The resonance wavelength of the etalon can be regulated by adjusting the incident positions of signal beam and/or control beam to the optical gate by moving the collimating GRIN lenses. This decreases the required thickness accuracy of the etalon by one or more orders of magnitude than in the conventional technique. Three major types of switches are disclosed: a primary type in which the signal beam is switched by chaning the transmittance of the etalon by the control beam; a reflecting type which works as a complementary switch of the primary type; and a transfer type in which the direction of travel of the signal beam is changed by emitting either the transmitted signal beam or the reflected signal beam from the optical gate under the control of the control beam.