Signal Processing in Integrated Optics

Optical processors have potentially a major advantage §over electronic processors because of their §tremendous bandwidth. Massive parallelism is another §inherent advantage of optical processors. However, it §is traditionally demonstrated with free space §components and seldom used for integrated optical §signal processing. In this work, we consider spatial §domain signal processing in guided wave structures, §which brings a new dimension to the existing serial §signal processing architecture and takes advantage of §the parallelism in optics. A new concept for linear §optical signal processing using multimode waveguide §holograms (MWHs) is introduced and analyzed. We also §examine the nonlinear optical switches which allow §the integration of MWHs into modern optical §communication networks. Finally, we demonstrate the §concept of optical switching using XPM in segmented §semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) based on the §proven technology of semiconductor waveguides. The §analysis should be especially useful to researchers §working in the field of optical signal processing.