Electrically controlled optical switch for multimode fiber applications
Abstract
An electrically controlled optical switch based on polarization principles is described. It uses a liquid crystal twist cell that rotates polarization by 90 deg, and it operates on an ac voltage that switches between 0.8 and 2.5 V rms. The switch has a loss of approximately 0.4 dB, neglecting reflections, in an unpolarized incoherent beam and a cross-talk ratio of approximately -20 dB. It operates in collimated light, but it can be applied to multimode fibers using collimating lenses, which are expected to add less than 0.8 dB to the loss.
- Publication:
-
Applied Optics
- Pub Date:
- September 1980
- DOI:
- 10.1364/AO.19.002921
- Bibcode:
- 1980ApOpt..19.2921W
- Keywords:
-
- Crystal Optics;
- Electric Switches;
- Fiber Optics;
- Liquid Crystals;
- Propagation Modes;
- Butt Joints;
- Faraday Effect;
- Optical Reflection;
- Polarization Characteristics;
- Quartz Crystals;
- Optics;
- FIBER OPTICS