Optical switch employing first and second ferroelectric cells wi

Details Optical switch employing first and second ferroelectric cells wi Optical switch employing first and second ferroelectric cells wi

1993-06-01

1995-05-09

Sikes, William L.

Optical: systems and elements

Holographic system or element

Having optical element between object and recording medium

359 42, 359 93, 359256, 359 75, G02F 113, G02F 1137, G02F 11337, G02F 103

Patent

active

054145414

ABSTRACT:
A liquid-crystal optical beam switch comprising: a first birefringent layer (14) which divides an input beam (24) into its two polarization components; a first segmented twisted nematic liquid-crystal polarization modulator (16), the segments (30,32) of which rotate one of the polarization beams by 90.degree. but not the other so they both have the same polarization state and which polarization state depends on the biasing state of a two-state biasing source (33); a second birefringent layer 18 which displaces the beams in a direction perpendicular to that produced by the first birefringent layer if they are of one polarization but do not displacement them if they are of the other polarization dependent upon the biasing state; a second segmented twisted nematic liquid-crystal polarization modulator (20) the segments (50,52) of which are oppositely biased from the segments of the first liquid-crystal modulator to thereby restore the original polarization difference; and a third birefringent layer (22) which, acting conversely to the first birefringent layer, recombines the beams into one of two output beams (58,64) dependent on the biasing state. A further stage of switching is provided by a fourth birefringent layer (104) having twice the thickness of and the same displacement direction as the second birefringent layer and by a separately switched associated unsegmented liquid-crystal polarization modulator (92).

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R. A. Soref, "Low-cross-talk 2.times.2 optical switch," Optics Letters, 1981, vol. 6, pp. 275-277.
R. A. Soref et al., "Calcite 2.times.2 optical bypass switch controlled by liquid-crystal cells," Optics Letters, 1982, vol. 7, pp. 186-188.
Y. Fujii, "Low-Crosstalk 1.times.2 Optical Switch Composed of Twisted Nematic Liquid Crystal Cells," IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 1993, vol. 5, pp. 206-208.
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