Beam steering in waveguide arrays by thermal control

Summary form only given. Recently, discrete diffraction phenomena of homogeneous and inhomogeneous optical waveguide arrays (OWAs) have been observed and it became clear that their discrete nature promises distinct features favorable to the spatial manipulation of optical signals. Here we report the first experimental demonstration of these new concepts for signal steering in OWAs by temperature control. For switching/routing devices the number of channels which can be addressed is a critical parameter. Experimental results for different detunings show that for the used arrays a signal routing to 6 signal channels seems possible. The other critical performance parameter, the response time, is a handicap of thermo-optic devices.