Fast electroholographic switching

Electroholographic switching with a rise time of 13 ns is henceforth presented. The switching was demonstrated in a potassium lithium tantalate crystal doped with copper and titanium with T⁰ = 10°C. The crystal was operated at 17°C. The switching operation was done in the g ¹¹/g₁₂ configuration, in which the Bragg condition remains fulfilled at all levels of the applied field. As electroholography is a wavelength-selective switching method, this opens the way for implementing optical packet switching and fast wavelength addressing schemes in optical fiber networks that apply wavelength division multiplexing.