Roadmap Systems Ltd

Cambridge Enterprise Limited

Huawei Technologies Co., Limited

Huber+suhner Polatis Limited

Haining Yang

Daping Chu

Brian Robertson

Peter John Wilkinson

Liangjia Zong

An optical switching unit comprising: a plurality of arrays of multiple optical waveguides; and a switching structure controllable to direct light received from any of the optical waveguides in a first array of the plurality of arrays to one or more optical waveguides of each other array in the plurality of arrays.

Optical switching unit

We describe a space-division multiplexed (SDM) fibre, reconfigurable, wavelength-selective switch (WSS). The switch comprises a space-division multiplexed (SDM) optical input port to receive a space-division multiplexed (SDM) optical input signal comprising a plurality of space division modes each of said space division modes carrying a respective data signal, wherein each of said space division modes is also wavelength division multiplexed (WDM); an optical space division demultiplexer, coupled to said input port, to split said space-division multiplexed (SDM) optical input signal into a plurality of space division demultiplexed optical signals on separate demultiplexer outputs of said demultiplexer, each said demultiplexer output of said demultiplexer comprising a wavelength division multiplexed one of said plurality of space division modes; a set of reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switches, each reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switch having a switch input and a set of N switch outputs, and each including a dispersive element and a controllable beam steering element such that each said reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switch is reconfigurable to selectively direct different respective wavelengths of a WDM optical signal at said switch input to different selected outputs of said set of N switch outputs, and wherein each said demultiplexer output is coupled to said switch input of a respective one of said set of reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switches; and a set of optical space division multiplexers, one for each of said N switch outputs, each said optical space division multiplexer having a set of multiplexer inputs and a multiplexer output, to re-multiplex optical signals at said multiplexer inputs into a space-division multiplexed optical output signal at said multiplexer output, and wherein, for each of said set of optical space division multiplexers, each multiplexer input of said set of multiplexer inputs is coupled to said switch output of a different respective one of said set of reconfigurable wavelength-selective optical switches.

Space-division multiplexed reconfigurable, wavelength selective switch

A spatial phase modulator and a method for producing a spatial phase modulator are provided. The spatial phase modulator includes a first substrate and a second substrate that are meshed together, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the two substrates, where a transparent electrode layer and a first alignment and guiding layer are disposed in a cascading manner on a side that is of the first substrate and that faces the liquid crystal layer; and an electrode layer and an insulation medium glass layer are disposed in a cascading manner on a side that is of the second substrate and that faces the liquid crystal layer, where the insulation medium glass layer has an inclined serration structure on a side facing the liquid crystal layer.

Spatial phase modulator and method for producing spatial phase modulator

We describe a multimode reconfigurable optical spatial mode multiplexing system having first and second first and second input beams and a beam combiner to combine these into an optical output. At least one of the paths comprises a polarisation-independent reconfigurable phase modulator to impose a controllable phase profile on an input beam in an input beam phase modulating optical path, to controllably convert a spatial mode order of the input beam from a lower to a higher order spatial mode. The system also has a control input to control the phase modulator to configure the phase profile for the mode conversion. The input beams are combined into a multiple spatial mode combined beam output independent of a polarisation of the input beams. The number of spatial modes of the combined beam can be more than a number of spatial modes in either of the first and second input beams separately.

Polarisation-independent, optical multiplexing and demultiplexing systems based on ferroelectric liquid crystal phase modulators for spatial mode division multiplexing and demultiplexing

We describe a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) reconfigurable optical switch, the switch comprising: a set of arrays of optical beam connections, each comprising an array of optical outputs and having an optical input to receive a WDM input optical signal; a first diffractive element to demultiplexed said WDM input optical signal into a plurality of demultiplexed optical input beams, and to disperse said demultiplexed optical input beams spatially along a first axis; first relay optics between said set of arrays of optical beam connections and said first diffractive element; and a reconfigurable holographic array comprising a 2D array of reconfigurable sub-holograms defining sub-hologram rows and columns; wherein said arrays of said set of arrays are at least one dimensional arrays extending spatially in a direction parallel to said first axis and arranged in a column defining a second axis orthogonal to said first axis; wherein said sub-hologram rows are aligned along said first axis, and wherein said sub-hologram columns are aligned along said second axis; wherein a number of said sub-hologram rows corresponds to a number of arrays in said set of arrays; and wherein each sub-hologram row is configured to receive a set of demultiplexed optical input beams at different carrier wavelengths demultiplexed from the optical input for the array of the set of arrays to which the row corresponds; wherein each of said sub-holograms in a sub-hologram row is reconfigurable to steer a respective wavelength channel of the WDM input signal for the array to which the sub-hologram row corresponds, towards a selected said optical output for the array; and wherein each said sub-hologram row is configured to steer the demultiplexed optical input beams for a respective array of the set of arrays of optical beam connections.

Optical switching systems

A wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) reconfigurable optical switch, the switch has at least one optical input port to receive a WDM input optical signal comprising a plurality of wavelength channels; a plurality of optical output ports; a reconfigurable holographic array on an optical path between the at least one optical input port and the plurality of optical output ports; and at least one diffractive element on an optical path between at least one optical input port and the reconfigurable holographic array, to demultiplex the WDM input optical signal into a plurality of demultiplexed optical input beam channels, and to disperse the demultiplexed optical input beam channels spatially along a first axis on said the reconfigurable holographic array; and the switch further comprises one or more beam profiling optical elements to modify transverse beam profiles of the demultiplexed optical input beam channels.

Optical systems

A wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) reconfigurable optical switch. The switch has a set of arrays of optical beam connections, each comprising an array of optical outputs and having an optical input to receive a WDM input optical signal; a first diffractive element to demultiplexed the WDM input optical signal into a plurality of demultiplexed optical input beams, and to disperse said demultiplexed optical input beams spatially along a first axis; first relay optics between the set of arrays of optical beam connections and the first diffractive element; and a reconfigurable holographic array comprising a 2D array of reconfigurable sub-holograms defining sub-hologram rows and columns. The arrays of said set of arrays and the sub-hologram rows and columns are arranged and aligned in particular ways so that wavelength channels of the WDM input signal for each array can be steered within the device towards a selected optical output.

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Cambridge, United Kingdom

Haining Yang