Electro-Optical Waveguide Deflectors for Signal Processing Applications,

The behavior of various electro-optic waveguide deflectors is analyzed using Fraunhofer diffraction theory to obtain the far field output intensity distributions. In all the devices, a spatially varying phase shift is created electro-optically across the input optical beam. The resulting voltage-dependent optical beam deflection can be continuous or discontinuous. Single prism elements, arrays of identical or phase-staggered prism elements and arrays of channel waveguide elements are described by the same analytic technique. The capacitance of difference interdigital electrode structures is determined and is in good agreement with experimental measurements. The capabilities of different deflectors are assessed by comparing number of resolvable spots, power, bandwidth and crosstalk. Comparisons are made with experimental data. Simple phase distributions are demonstrated to be useful for determining most deflection parameters, including the power per unit bandwidth. Author