Use of wavefront encoding in optical interconnects and fiber switches for cross talk mitigation

Company Founder's work at Cambridge University Published

in Applied Optics

On September 21 2011, the work carried out by the founder of Wuxi OptonTech Ltd, Dr Jinsong Liu, and other scientists at the University of Cambridge is published in Applied Optics.

By Brian Robertson, Zichen Zhang, Maura M. Redmond, Neil Collings, Jinsong Liu, R. S. Lin, Anna M. Jeziorska-Chapman, John R. Moore, William A. Crossland, and D. P. Chu

Photonics and Sensors Group, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, 9 JJ Thomson Avenue, CB3 0FA, Cambridge, UK

Abstract: A technique of cross talk mitigation developed for liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator based optical interconnects and fiber switches is demonstrated. By purposefully introducing an appropriate aberration into the system, it is possible to reduce the worst-case cross talk by over 10 dB compared to conventional Fourier-transform-based designs. Tests at a wavelength of 674 nm validate this approach, and show that there is no noticeable reduction in diffraction efficiency. A 27% spot increase in beam diameter is observed, which is predicted to reduce at longer datacom and telecom wavelengths.