Abstract

The excitation of guided modes with a beam incident through a grating is a well-established technique where usually the interest is focused on the amplitude of the guided field. Hence, one attempts to suppress the reflected or transmitted light by properly tailoring the grating and the pulse shape. But, on the other hand, the grating coupler operated in the reflection mode can be viewed as a highly efficient optical switch. Switching operation with high contrast could be demonstrated in a silicon-on-sapphire sample clad with a silver grating.¹ A first attempt to model the optical response, that exhibits, e.g., fairly unusual hysteresis loops, were made in applying a modal theory and rather simple material equations.²

© 1994 IEEE