Free space adaptive optical interconnect at 1.25 Gb/s, with beam steering using a ferroelectric liquid-crystal SLM

Henderson, Charley J.; Leyva, D. Gil; Wilkinson, Tim D.

doi:10.1109/jlt.2006.871015

Cited by 61 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…These switches are actually based on holographic projection, and a number of devices have been demonstrated. 39,40 SLMs and their applications are discussed in more detail in Sec 4.…”

Section: Optical Switches In Free Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid-crystal photonic applications

2011

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Abstract. Liquid crystals are nowadays widely used in all types of display applications. However their unique electro-optic properties also make them a suitable material for nondisplay applications. We will focus on the use of liquid crystals in different photonic components: optical filters and switches, beam-steering devices, spatial light modulators, integrated devices based on optical waveguiding, lasers, and optical nonlinear components. Both the basic operating principles as well as the recent state-of-the art are discussed. C 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).[ DOI: 10.1117/1.3565046] Subject terms: liquid crystals; photonic applications; review; liquid-crystal lasers; spatial light modulators; tunable lenses; nematicons; optical nonlinearity.Paper 100913SSR received Nov. 5, 2010; revised manuscript received Jan. 11, 2011; accepted for publication Jan. 13, 2011; published online Jun. 14, 2011. IntroductionLiquid crystals (LCs) are organic materials that are liquid but that show a certain degree of ordering (positional and/or orientational). With this definition, many materials can be classified as liquid crystals, but the majority of liquid crystals that are used in photonic applications are of the thermotropic type. Thermotropic means that the liquid-crystal phase exists within a certain temperature interval (in contrast to lyotropic materials for which the material is liquid-crystal within a certain concentration range). Various types of thermotropic liquid-crystal materials exist, and many different mesophases have been discovered in the last decades: nematic, smectic A, smectic C, columnar, blue phases, and many many more. The diversity of liquid-crystal materials is huge, but this diversity is even overshadowed by the number of applications in which liquid crystals are used nowadays. The majority of applications are related to informationdisplay applications. Liquid crystals have conquered the major market share in different display application areas: television screens, laptop screens, screens in mobile phones, etc. Only in projection displays does a tough competitor exist, namely microelectromechanical systems or licenced by Texas Instruments: Digital light processing. Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are the obvious next generation technology that could overtake the LC domination, but today OLED displays have not penetrated the market and only the future will tell if they will. In this review article, we will focus on nondisplay applications, but because we cannot go too broad, we restrict ourselves to photonic applications in which the light is actively manipulated by the LC. In this review article, a certain external influence (surface anchoring, electric fields, optical fields) is used to (re)orient the LC in a certain way. In turn, the LC then changes the light that is propagating through it. Of course, as in every review article, it is impossible to list all the fascinating new scientific results or breakthroughs. Therefore, the authors apologize for not i...

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“…These switches are actually based on holographic projection, and a number of devices have been demonstrated. 39,40 SLMs and their applications are discussed in more detail in Sec 4.…”

Section: Optical Switches In Free Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid-crystal photonic applications

2011

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“…The major approaches include, the space-division optical switch [7][8][9], the wave-guide type optical switch [10][11][12], the silica-based switch [13][14][15], the thermo-optical switch [16][17][18], the acousto-optic routing switch [19][20][21], the optomechanical switch [22][23][24][25][26], the electro-optic switch [27,28], and the free space optical switch [29,30]. While they all offer the benefits associated with optical interconnection, they do exhibit drawbacks and limitations in practical applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polarization-independent bidirectional 4×4 optical switch in free space

Yang

et al. 2010

Optics & Laser Technology

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“…Recent reports by both academia and industry have predicted that the electrical interconnect technology will be replaced by optical interconnect technologies for high performance computing in the next decade [1] [5] [10]. Different approaches for signal transmission and distribution have recently been reported, including, polymer waveguides [11]- [12], fiber ribbons [13]- [14], fiber image guides [15]- [16], and free space optical interconnects using lenses and mirror systems [17]- [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Free-space optical interconnects enable dense and reconfigurable optical signal transmission and distribution to be realized simultaneously. A reconfigurable free space optical interconnect architecture, employing a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) processor in conjunction with a polarization beam splitter, has been reported [17], demonstrating an optical loss of 13.6dB and a bit error rate (BER) of 10 −12 at 1.25Gb/s. Another reconfigurable optical interconnect architecture based on the use of a prism together with a lens and a spatial light modulator (SLM) has also been adopted [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel reconfigurable optical interconnect architecture using an Opto-VLSI processor and a 4-f imaging system

Shen¹,

Xiao²,

Alameh³

2009

Opt. Express

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A novel reconfigurable optical interconnect architecture for onboard high-speed data transmission is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The interconnect architecture is based on the use of an Opto-VLSI processor in conjunction with a 4-f imaging system to achieve reconfigurable chip-to-chip or board-to-board data communications. By reconfiguring the phase hologram of an Opto-VLSI processor, optical data generated by a vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) associated to a chip (or a board) is arbitrarily steered to the photodetector associated to another chip (or another board). Experimental results show that the optical interconnect losses range from 5.8dB to 9.6dB, and that the maximum crosstalk level is below −36dB. The proposed architecture is tested for highspeed data transmission, and measured eye diagrams display good eye opening for data rate of up to 10Gb/s.

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Free space adaptive optical interconnect at 1.25 Gb/s, with beam steering using a ferroelectric liquid-crystal SLM

Cited by 61 publications

References 23 publications

Liquid-crystal photonic applications

Liquid-crystal photonic applications

Polarization-independent bidirectional 4×4 optical switch in free space

A novel reconfigurable optical interconnect architecture using an Opto-VLSI processor and a 4-f imaging system

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