1x2 Polymer optical switches using nematic liquid crystals

Abstract

This paper proposes compact, broadband fíber optic 1x2 switches with a reduced number of elements at the expense of a minimum 3dB insertion losses, and their practical, low cost implementation using NLC cells in combination with plastic optical fibers. These NLC cells require low power levels for working. Different configurations are proposed to improve crosstalk figures. Fiber-to-fiber losses are in the order or even better than in other previous designs and can be improved using better coupling schemes thanks to the high numerical aperture of the POF. These switches can be used in coarse WDM networks, POF LANs and sensor networks for allowing redundant paths and time division multiplexing.