title: Active optical interconnect based on liquid-crystal grating.
abstract: We propose a transparent plate of a liquid-crystal grating to be used as a light guide for optical interconnection. To this end, we are empowering the connection itself with active functions, such as switching, wavelength division, power adjustment, etc. In experiments, we built a grating based on in-plane switching. It contains vertically-aligned nematic liquid-crystal molecules between a glass plate with a high refractive index (light guide) and another glass plate with a pair of interdigitated electrodes. Entering a TM wave from an edge of the light guide, we have demonstrated that the activation of diffraction and intensity adjustment for the guided light are both possible. Because a TE wave is barely diffracted, the device also exhibits polarization division capability.
authors.affiliation: NEC Corporation, 1-1 Miyazaki 4-Chome, Miyamae-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 216-8555, Japan. i.fujieda@tradim.or.jp
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fujieda
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mikami
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ozawa