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Proceedings Paper

High-speed laser beam attenuators based on electro-optic Bragg gratings
Author(s): Suning Tang; Yuanji Tang; Baofeng Duan; Thomas S. Hartwick; James Foshee
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Paper Abstract

This paper provides research progress in the development of fast electro-optic gratings for laser beam attenuations and in free space optical (FSO) communications involving mobile terminals. The electro-optic phase grating is formed by the phase separation of ~100nm liquid crystals droplets from a polymerizing organic matrix using holographic interference technique. The formed grating separates the incident laser beam into the output beams: the transmitted and diffracted beam, whose intensities can be electrically adjusted through electro-optic effect. The fast electro-optic gratings have a very fast electro-optic response time of 50 μs with diffraction efficiency above 99.8%. Optical receivers used in FSO have a limited dynamic range and there is a need for in-line variable attenuators to keep the signal levels from overloading the receiver. These attenuators should be continuous, provide sufficient attenuation, and also provide a low insertion loss for weak signal reception. The use of electro-optic phase gratings is one solution to meet the requirements for an in-line attenuator for FSO.

Paper Details

Date Published: 5 February 2008
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 6838, Optoelectronic Devices and Integration II, 68380A (5 February 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.771481
Show Author Affiliations
Suning Tang, Crystal Research, Inc. (United States)
Yuanji Tang, Crystal Research, Inc. (United States)
Baofeng Duan, Crystal Research, Inc. (United States)
Thomas S. Hartwick, Crystal Research, Inc. (United States)
James Foshee, Air Force Research Lab. (United States)


Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6838:
Optoelectronic Devices and Integration II
Xuping Zhang; Hai Ming; Maggie Yihong Chen, Editor(s)

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