$1\times2$ Optofluidic Switch for Optical Beam Routing and Variable Power Distribution

Abstract

We report a $1\times 2$ optofluidic switch which consists of a fluidic chamber and an electrowetting chamber. The fluidic chamber can realize light routing and power distribution. The electrowetting chamber can switch the light on and off. On the whole, the device can achieve a distribution of the incident light power to two outputs in any proportion (from 0% to 100%), and the light in each output can be switched on and off completely. Besides, due to light routing, the light loss of the proposed optofluidic switch is relatively low. The measured light loss of the device is less than ~0.35 dB. The proposed optofluidic switch has potential applications in optical switching networks, beam splitters, variable optical attenuators, and optical routers.