Apparatus for continuous polarization and phase control

US4832431A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Siemens Aktiengesellschaft · DE

Inventors

• Hans-Peter Nolting · Berlin, DE
• Helmut Heidrich · Berlin, DE
• Detlef Hoffmann · Burns Lake, CA

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 11, 1987
• Grant date: May 23, 1989
• Expiry date: Sep 11, 2007

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02F2203/07
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Apparatus for continuous reset-free polarization and phase control which includes an optical strip waveguide 10 in which two waves TE and TM mode are polarized orthogonally relative to each other and have mutually different propagation constants .beta..sub.1 and .beta..sub.2 and includes a plurality of N=4m equidistant electrodes (E.sub.i, where i=1, 2 . . . N) which are mounted successively along the strip waveguide 10 and where m is a whole number between 5 and 10 and wherein each electrode E.sub.i receives a voltage EQU U.sub.i =U.sub.0 sin (.eta.+(i-1).multidot..pi..multidot..LAMBDA..sub.0 /2.multidot..LAMBDA..sub.1) with i=1, 2, . . . N wherein .LAMBDA..sub.0 is the geometrical length fixed by four electrodes and .LAMBDA..sub.1 is the length defined by the operating wavelength .LAMBDA..sub.1 and .eta. is a variable control quantity between and 0 and 2.pi. and U.sub.0 is a variable maximum voltage. A wavelength region spreading of one octave or more can be achieved with this arrangement and the arrangement can be utilized as a tunable filter having a very large tuning range or can be utilized as a wavelength/selective switch.