Controllable beam director using poled structure

Abstract

A new class of energy interaction devices, particularly optical energy transfer devices and energy guiding devices, use an energy field, particularly an electric field, applied to a poled structure to control energy propagation in a solid material. The poled structures, which may form gratings in thin film or bulk configurations, may be combined with waveguide structures to guide energy beams such as optical or acoustic beams. Electric fields applied to the poled structures, such as electrically-activated gratings, control routing of optical energy. Optical devices include but are not limited to, frequency-selective switchable- and adjustably-tunable reflectors, splitters, directional couplers, frequency-tunable switches and efficient beam combiners, as well as polarized beam combiners, am and fm modulators, mode selectors, energy transfer devices, optical data readers, panel display devices, and waveguide/reflector switching arrays. Variable reflectivity in a grating and adjustable tunability is obtained by a poled structure under the influence of an adjustable field, producing a spatial gradient in an adjustable propagation velocity in the solid material.