<title>Polymer-based volume holograms for multiple wavelength network applications</title>

Abstract

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and demultiplexing (WDDM) devices are considered to be two of the key elements for enhancing the transmission bandwidth of optical communications and sensor systems. During the past 20 years, various type of WDMs and WDDMs have been proposed and demonstrated [1-7J. Recently the technique for producing spatially multiplexed phase grating based on polymer-based waveguide holograms for WD(D)M applications has been reported [7,8,9]. We report the formation of a surface-normal wavelength division demultiplexer using photopolymer-based volume holograms in conjugation with graded index (GRIN) lenses. The elimination of edge-coupling significantly enhances the packaging reliability and the time reversal of the beam propagation automatically results in the required wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). Furthermore, such a configuration is compatible with the implementation of vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers where the characteristic of azimuthal symmetry is maintained in the waveguiding substrate.In this paper, we present two devices for network applications. The first is an 8 channel surface-normal WDM with a center channel wavelength of 772 nm and a wavelength separation of 4 nm. The second is a 3x3 wavelength selective crossbar with a center wavelength of 765 nm and a channel separation of 10 nm. These devices are pivotal for the realization of such a computer-to-computer interconnect network shown in Fig. 1 [1] where both wavelength division multiplexing and space division multiplexing are employed to enhance the transmission bandwidth. The switching device depicted in Fig. 1 can be realized using the wavelength-selective crossbar to be presented in this paper. Timing - SignalsHeader! Data Fig. 1 JPL's Bit-Parallel Wavelength Links for High Performance Computer Networks [1] 0_819420646/96/$6.00 SPIE Vol. 2690/253 Time D4J I__i Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/15/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx