Beam steering by computer generated hologram for optical switches

We describe a computer generated hologram (CGH) method for application to a multiple input and multiple output (MxN) optical switch based on a liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS). The conventional MxN optical switch needs multiple spatial light modulations. However, the CGH method realizes an MxN optical switch simply with a one-time spatial light modulation, resulting in fewer optical elements and better cost efficiency. Moreover, the intrinsic loss of the proposed MxN switch resulting from beam splitting can be reduced by routing multiple signals with a single knob control, which is called a multi-pole multi-throw switch. In this paper, we demonstrate a 5x5 wavelength selective switch (WSS) and a 2-degree ROADM that we realized using the above CGH method. The experimental results indicate that these switches work well with a crosstalk of < -14.9 dB.