Journal of Lightwave Technology

The design of large-scale mirror-rotation free-space optical cross-connect switches based on arrays of microelectromechanical torsion mirrors is considered. The layout of a compact switch is first presented. The parameters of the Gaussian beam that maximizes the port count for a given mirror turn angle is then identified, and the supporting optical system needed to create the desired beam is defined. Scaling laws for the optical path length needed for a given number of ports are then derived. Numerical simulations are used to verify the ideal configuration, and scaling laws are proposed for various departures from the ideal. It is shown that ideal operation can still be maintained when the mirrors are curved, and operating conditions that minimize the effect of mirror curvature are identified.

A methodology is presented that allows the derivation of low-truncation-error finite-difference representations or the two-dimensional Helmholtz equation, specific to waveguide analysis. This methodology is derived from the formal infinite series solution involving Bessel functions and sines and cosines. The resulting finite-difference equations are valid everywhere except at dielectric corners, and are highly accurate (from fourth to sixth order, depending on the type of grid employed). None the less, they utilize only a nine-point stencil, and thus lead to only minor increases in numerical effort compared with the standard Crank-Nicolson equations.

An original approach to the solution of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE) is pursued in this paper, following the regular perturbation (RP) method. Such an iterative method provides a closed-form approximation of the received field and is thus appealing for devising nonlinear equalization/compensation techniques for optical transmission systems operating in the nonlinear regime. It is shown that, when the nonlinearity is due to the Kerr effect alone, the order n RP solution coincides with the order 2n + 1 Volterra series solution proposed by Brandt-Pearce and co-workers. The RP method thus provides a computationally efficient way of evaluating the Volterra kernels, with a complexity comparable to that of the split-step Fourier method (SSFM). Numerical results on 10 Gb/s single-channel terrestrial transmission systems employing common dispersion maps show that the simplest third-order Volterra series solution is applicable only in the weakly nonlinear propagation regime, for peak transmitted power well below 5 dBm. However, the insight in the nonlinear propagation phenomenon provided by the RP method suggests an enhanced regular perturbation (ERP) method, which allows the first order ERP solution to be fairly accurate for terrestrial dispersion mapped systems up to launched peak powers of 10 dBm.

We report simultaneous frequency conversion and amplitude modulation in an optical second-harmonic generator by electrooptically controlling the relative phase between the 1064-nm fundamental and the 532-nm second-harmonic fields in a dispersion crystal section between two periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) sections. Theoretical derivation and experimental demonstration were carried out for two novel crystal configurations, including a linear cascaded configuration in which a 1-cm dispersion section is sandwiched between two 2-cm PPLN sections, and a folding-crystal high-efficiency configuration in which the mixing waves traverse twice in a 2-cm PPLN section through total internal reflections in a 1.5-cm dispersion section. Due to the coherence enhancement in the constructive phase between the two second-harmonic generation (SHG) fields in the two PPLN sections, we measured a 30% increase in conversion efficiency compared to a 4-cm continuous-grating PPLN under the same condition. The measured half-wave voltage for the amplitude modulation is 1.1 V /spl times/ d (/spl mu/m)/l/sub d/ (cm), where d is the separation of the electrodes and l/sub d/ is the length of the electrodes.