A Tunable Dispersive Optical System

Keywords:
tunable, grating, in-plane

Abstract:
Pitch-tunable gratings can find many applications and have been widely investigated. However, they are limited to out-of plane type, which increase the cost for alignment and assembly. Instead, an in-plane type can built more micro optical components and gratings simultaneously, thus reducing the cost required. Varying the pitch makes wavelength modulated, and the dispersion can be predicted by the basic grating equation. However, several disadvantages would be found in designing this tunable grating. This paper proposes several novel designs to overcome the problems of an in-plane tunable grating. To verify these ideas, the related micro fabrication and experiments are undergoing. DRIE is used to simultaneously pattern the required components on a SOI wafer, including micro optical components, actuators, and pitch-tunable gratings. A more compact, low cost and miniaturized dispersive optical system can be realized by successful integrating such designs and components.

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Nanotech 2005 Conference Program Abstract