ACTIVE HOLOGRAPHIC SLM FOR OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS

EMERGING OPTICAL TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS CROSSBAR SWITCHING, OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS, OPTICAL NEURAL NETS OF OTHER OPTICAL COMPUTING ARCHITECTURES ALL PRESENTLY RELY ON ONE OF TWO TYPES OF DIFFRACTIVE ELEMENTS. SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATORS ARE PROGRAMMABLE BUT HAVE LOW RESOLUTION AND LOW DIFFRACTION EFFICIENCY. FIXED HOLOGRAMS OR DIGITALLY GENERATED BINARY OPTICAL ELEMENTS HAVE HIGH RESOLUTION AND 100 PERCENT DIFFRACTION EFFICIENCY BUT CANNOT BE RECONFIGURED. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS DIRECTED AT A NEW FAMILY OF ELECTRO-OPTICALLY TUNABLE HOLOGRAMS WHICH COMBINE HIGH RESOLUTION AND DIFFRACTION EFFICIENCY WITH ELECTRO-OPTIC SWITCHING BETWEEN DIFFRACTIVE ORDERS OR BETWEEN MULTIPLEXED HOLOGRAPHIC RECORDINGS IS POSSIBLE BY DYNAMIC ELECTRICAL OR OPTICAL CONTROL OF MODULATION DEPTH. THE TECHNIQUES TO BE EMPLOYED ARE BASED ON COMBINING ELECTRO-OPTICALLY ACTIVE LIQUIDS POSSESSING PICOSECOND RESPONSE TIMES WITH POLYMER HOLOGRAPHIC HOST MATERIALS. HIGH SPEED SWITCHABLE HOLOGRAMS HAVE APPLICATIONS FOR FIBER OPTIC SWITCHING ELEMENTS, LASER BEAM DIVIDERS, LASER PROTECTION DEVICES, TUNABLE AIRCRAFT CANOPIES AND ENERGY CONSERVING WINDOWS. BY FABRICATING ARRAYS OF INDEPENDENTLY ADDRESSABLE SMALL HOLOGRAMS, NEW TYPES OF SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATORS APPEAR POSSIBLE IN WHICH EACH ELEMENT PERFORMS A SOPHISTICATED DIFFRACTIVE EFFECT, OPENING MANY NOVELFUNCTIONAL POSSIBILITIES.