High-Speed Fiber Switches

Abstract

All-fiber optical switches based on fiber with electrodes exhibit transition times <10 ns. The devices are monolithic and robust, they are simple and could potentially be manufactured at low cost. The insertion loss is extremely low and the devices are compatible with single mode fiber technology. Two types of switches are discussed, one based on polarization rotation, the other one relying on the wavelength shift of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG).