Optical deflection element and space optical matrix switching device

• US 5,071,232 A
• Filed: 07/27/1990
• Issued: 12/10/1991
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Kato, Masayoshi, Inokuchi, Toshiyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): FONT, FRANK G
• Application Number:
  US07/558,440
• Time in Patent Office: 501 Days
• Field of Search: 350/356, 350/96.18, 350/96.11, 350/96.12, 350/96.13, 350/96.14, 350/96.15, 350/355
• US Class Current: 359/315
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/2848 having refractive means, e.g. imaging elements between light guides as splitting, branching and/or combining devices, e.g. lenses, holograms
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/29 for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/31 Digital deflection, i.e. optical switchingG02F1/33 takes precedence

Abstract

An optical deflection element receives incident beam and deflects the incident beam with an arbitrary deflection angle. The optical deflection element includes a plurality of unit members which are successively stacked and each including an electrooptic layer, an electrode layer formed on a surface of each electrooptic layer, and an insulator layer formed on the surface of each electrooptic layer adjacent to the electrode layer, where a boundary between the electrode layer and the insulator layer is inclined to an optical axis of the incident beam.

Claims

1. An optical deflection element for receiving incident beam and deflecting the incident beam with an arbitrary deflection angle, said optical deflection element comprising:

a plurality of unit members which are successively stacked, each of said unit members including an electrooptic layer;

an electrode layer formed on a surface of each electrooptic layer; and

an insulator layer formed on said surface of each electrooptic layer adjacent to said electrode layer,

a boundary between said electrode layer and said insulator layer being inclined to an optical axis of the incident beam.

2. The optical deflection element as claimed in claim 1, wherein said surface of each electrooptic layer has a rectangular shape, and said boundary matches a diagonal line of the rectangular shape.

3. The optical deflection element as claimed in claim 1, wherein optical axes of two mutually adjacent electrooptic layers are arranged in mutually opposite directions, and the electrode layers of the two mutually adjacent electrooptic layers are applied with voltages of mutually opposite polarities.

4. The optical deflection element as claimed in claim 1, wherein said electrooptic layer is made of a material selected from a group including LiNbO₃, and said electrode layer is made of a material selected from a group including indium tin oxide (ITO).

5. The optical deflection element as claimed in claim 4, wherein said electrode layer is transparent to the incident beam.

6. The optical deflection element as claimed in claim 1, wherein a change Δ

n in a refractive index of said electrooptic layer is described by

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">Δ

n=(-1/2)n.sup.3.sub.e r.sub.33 (V.sub.O /d)

where each electrooptic layer has a thickness d, a voltage V_O is applied across the electrode layers, n_e denotes a refractive index along a direction in which the unit members are stacked and r₃₃ denotes an electrooptic coefficient.

7. The optical deflection element as claimed in claim 1, wherein a change Δ

n in a refractive index of said electrooptic layer is described by

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">Δ

n≈

m(-1/2)n.sup.3.sub.e r.sub.33 (V.sub.O /D)

where a voltage V_O is applied across the electrode layers, m denotes the number of unit members, n_e denotes a refractive index along a direction in which the m unit members are stacked, r₃₃ denotes an electrooptic coefficient, D denotes a thickness of the m unit members which are stacked.

8. A space optical matrix switching device comprising:

a collimator element including an array of microlenses for receiving incident beam;

a space deflection element coupled to said collimator element and including an array of optical deflection elements for deflecting collimated beam received from said collimator element depending on a change in a refractive index based on electrooptic effect;

a deflection angle amplifier element coupled to said space deflection element and including an array of microholograms for amplifying a deflection angle of deflected beam received from said space deflection element by diffraction so as to switch an optical path of the deflected beam; and

coupling means coupled to said deflection angle amplifier element for selectively outputting the deflected beam received via the switched optical path.

9. The space optical matrix switching device as claimed in claim 8 which is coupled to input optical fibers and output optical fibers, wherein each microlens of said collimator element is coupled to one of the input optical fibers, and said coupling means selectively outputs the deflected beam received via the switched optical path to one of the output optical fibers.

10. The space optical matrix switching device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said coupling means includes an angle conversion element coupled to said deflection angle amplifier element and including an array of microholograms provided in correspondence with the microholograms of said deflection angle amplifier element, and a coupling element coupled to said angle conversion element and including an array of microlenses which are provided in correspondence with the microholograms of said angle conversion element, each of the microlenses of said angle conversion element being coupled to one of the output optical fibers.

11. The space optical matrix switching device as claimed in claim 8, wherein said coupling means includes an angle conversion element coupled to said deflection angle amplifier element and including an array of microholograms provided in correspondence with the microholograms of said deflection angle amplifier element, and a coupling element coupled to said angle conversion element and including an array of microlenses which are provided in correspondence with the microholograms of said angle conversion element.

12. The space optical matrix switching device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the optical deflection element of said space deflection element includes:

a plurality of unit members which are successively stacked, each of said unit members including an electrooptic layer;

an electrode layer formed on a surface of each electrooptic layer; and

an insulator layer formed on said surface of each electrooptic layer adjacent to said electrode layer,

a boundary between said electrode layer and said insulator layer being inclined to an optical axis of the incident beam.