All-optical switching based on grating written photorefractive slab/fiber waveguide coupler

Abstract

Since all optical switching is a key element for all kinds of optical networks, great amount of works have been dedicated either for material researches or various waveguide structures. Generally speaking the switching time of devices based on photorefractive effect are rather slow for today's high capacity optical fiber networks. In the field of waveguide architecture various geometries have been proposed and investigated for grating assisted or guided optical coupling for the purpose of designing all-optical switch, adddrop multiplexers, filters etc.