Abstract:
There is disclosed an optical guiding apparatus of the type in which a dielectric body is bounded by other dielectric materials or free space and has only one dimension sufficiently small to produce guiding of the light. The apparatus includes means for supplying a coherent light beam in a desired mode or modes to the body and means for receiving one or more light beams from the body. The apparatus is characterized by a taper of the body to vary the one dimension sufficiently to provide light coupling between the body and at least one of the supplying or receiving means at a cutoff line for the guiding action. Electro-optic light deflection is provided within the body in some embodiments. Since different modes can be coupled out at different cutoff lines, this property is used in one embodiment to provide a twocoordinate light deflector which is useful in scanning applications.
Abstract:
Coupling of light waves through a major surface of a thin film for propagation therein is achieved by means of a distributed action of the evanescent field of a light wave in an internalreflection prism disposed so close to the film that internal reflection is partially frustrated. Phase-matching of the evanescent wave and the wave propagating in the thin film is obtained by directing the input light beam at the proper angle within the prism toward the internal reflection surface and by providing appropriate indices of refraction of the components. Light-utilizing integrated circuits, including dielectric waveguides, modulators, parametric devices and amplifiers are provided with input and output coupling in this fashion. Systems employing directional coupling and channel dropping and adding are also disclosed.