Abstract

An optical crossbar element that uses birefringent crystal plates and programmable half-wave plates is proposed. It is compact, cascadable, and well suited for realizing an array of switching elements employed in multistage interconnection networks. Arrays of two-input/two-output and four-input/four-putput crossbar switching elements and a Clos (4, 4, 4) network are also presented.

© 1994 Optical Society of America

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