T. Kirihara et al., LOSSLESS AND LOW-CROSSTALK CHARACTERISTICS IN AN INP-BASED 4 X 4 OPTICAL SWITCH WITH INTEGRATED SINGLE-STAGE OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS, IEEE photonics technology letters, 6(2), 1994, pp. 218-221
We report for the first time a successful operation of a 4 x 4 optical
switch. A novel structure is utilized to achieve lossless and extreme
ly low crosstalk characteristics. Sixteen of carrier-injection type op
tical single-slip-structure (S3) switch with traveling-wave amplifier
(COSTA) are monolithically integrated in 4 x 4 crossbar configuration
on an InP substrate. A fiber-to-fiber gain of 5 dB and an ON/OFF ratio
of 54 dB have been demonstrated using this structure. We believe this
switch structure has a potential to be employed in a large scale phot
onic switching system where low loss and low crosstalk are critical re
quirements.