Folded free-space polarization-controlled multistage interconnection network

Dan M. Marom, Paul E. Shames, Fang Xu, Yeshaiahu Fainman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a folded free-space polarization-controlled optical multistage interconnection network (MIN) based on a dilated bypass-exchange switch (DBS) design that uses compact polarization-selective diffractive optical elements (PDOE’s). The folded MIN design has several advantages over that of the traditional transparent MIN, including compactness, spatial filtering of unwanted higher-order diffraction terms leading to an improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and ease of alignment. We experimentally characterize a folded 2 × 2 switch, as well as a 4 × 4 and an 8 × 8 folded MIN that we have designed and fabricated. We fabricated an array of off-axis Fresnel lenslet PDOE’s with a 30:1 SNR and used it to construct a 2 × 2 DBS with a measured SNR of 60:1. Using this PDOE array in a 4 × 4 MIN resulted in an increased SNR of 120:1, highlighting the filtering effect of the folded design.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6884-6891
Number of pages8
JournalApplied Optics
Volume37
Issue number29
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Oct 1998
Externally publishedYes

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