Integrated Acousto-Optic Device Modules and Applications

Abstract

As discussed in Chaps.5–7, a great deal of advancements have been made in planar guided-wave acoustooptics. These advancements include the analytical treatment of complex interaction geometry, preparation of waveguide materials, design and fabrication of wide-band Bragg modulators and deflectors (Bragg cells), and the demonstration of a number of simple applications. Continuing progress in the fabrication and performance of other components including optical waveguides, waveguide lenses, diode laser sources and photodetector arrays, and their integration have significantly advanced the prospects for realization of a variety of integrated acousto-optic (AO) device modules and circuits. The most notable example of such modules is the integrated optic RF spectrum analyzer with LiNbO3 that has been presented in detail in Chap.7. This chapter provides a review on the spectrum analyzer modules on nonpiezoelectric substrate materials and a number of other planar AO device modules with LiNbO3 and GaAs as well as a spherical waveguide AO device module in LiNbO3 that are being developed. The results obtained thus far have shown that such AO device modules will have small substrate dimensions along the optical path and will also be inherently of high modularity and versatility. Consequently, such integrated AO device modules should find novel applications in wide band multichannel integrated- and fiber-optic communication, signal processing, and computing systems.KeywordsSurface Acoustic WaveDiffraction EfficiencyPlanar WaveguideBragg DiffractionChannel WaveguideThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.