A $1 \times N$ Lossless Adaptive Optical Power Splitter Employing an Opto-VLSI Processor

We propose and demonstrate the concept of a novel 1 × N lossless adaptive optical power splitter (OPS) structure integrating a software-driven Opto-VLSI processor, optical amplifiers, and an array of 4-f imaging systems. The active area of the Opto-VLSI processor is divided into M pixel blocks driven by multicasting phase holograms and aligned with an M-element lens array and a fiber array, thus forming an array of 4-f imaging systems. Each 4-f imaging system is capable of collimating and adaptively splitting an input optical beam emerging from an optical fiber and then coupling the split beams into different output fiber ports, thus realizing dynamic optical power splitting. The Opto-VLSI processor is driven by optimized multicasting phase holograms that adaptively split an incident laser beam along different angles; thus, user-defined splitting ratios can be achieved. Experimental results show that the optical amplifiers compensate for the splitting and the insertion losses, making the adaptive OPS lossless.