Improvement of switching time in a thermocapillarity optical switch

Author

Sakata, Tomomi ; Togo, Hiroyoshi ; Makihara, Mitsuhiro ; Shimokawa, Fusao ; Kaneko, Kazumasa

Author_Institution

NTT Telecommun. Energy Labs., Kanagawa, Japan

Volume

19

Issue

7

fYear

2001

fDate

7/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1023

Lastpage

1027

Abstract

The switching time of existing thermocapillarity optical switches is about two orders of magnitude larger than that of other optical switches, such as a thermooptics switch and a free-space switch using microelectromechanical system technology. This paper reports a thermocapillarity switch whose switching time is comparable to that of the thermooptics and free-space switches. The greatly improved switching time is achieved by lowering the absolute viscosity of the refractive-index matching liquid and improving the switch design

Keywords

optical communication equipment; optical switches; refractive index; thermo-optical effects; viscosity; wavelength division multiplexing; absolute viscosity; free-space switch; free-space switches; microelectromechanical system technology; optical switches; refractive-index matching liquid; switch design; switching time; thermocapillarity optical switch; thermooptics; thermooptics switch; Optical crosstalk; Optical fiber networks; Optical fibers; Optical network units; Optical refraction; Optical switches; Optical variables control; Optical waveguides; Switching circuits; Telecommunication switching;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.933298

Filename

933298