The design and performance of a digital scanner based on ferroelectric liquid-crystal switchable wave plates and passive nematic liquid-crystal prisms are reported. The liquid-crystal prisms function as low-cost, integrable, lowangle birefringent prisms. A 1 x 64 scanner was built with -5.3 dB of average loss. By using an active filter, the limiting mispolarization cross talk of the scanner was reduced from -13 dB to less than -25 dB.
The design and experimental results of a new 2 x 2 optical routing switch based on liquid crystal is reported. The switch uses nematic liquid crystal for polarization beamsplitting and ferroelectric liquid crystal for polarization rotation. The polarization insensitive, broadcast capable, full duplex switch has a signal-to crosstalk ratio of ~20 dB, a switching speed below 250 micros and a measured insertion loss of 1.4 dB. We show that the basic 2 x 2 switch can be extended to form a N x N rearrangeable permutation network.
The design, experimental results, and analysis of a 1 x N ferroelectric liquid-crystal optical switch based on polarization rotation are reported. The switch is broadband and tolerant to errors in the ferroelectric liquid-crystal tilt angle and cell thickness. Moreover, the cross talk in the switch is noncumulative and independent of the switch size N. The results of an experimental 1 x 4 switch are presented. The switch has a signal-to-cross-talk ratio ranging from 21.6 to 37.1 dB, a switching time of 50 microsec, and a worst-case insertion loss of 3.5 dB.
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