OPTICALLY ACTIVATED HOLOGRAMS FOR FIBER OPTIC SWITCHING

SENSITIVE, HIGH SPEED NONLINEAR OPTICAL MATERIALS ARE DESIRED FOR MANY EMERGING OPTICAL TECHNOLOGIES INCLUDING FIBER OPTIC SWITCHING, OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS, LASER HARDENING AND OPTICAL COMPUTING. NO PRESENTLY AVAILABLE SOLID THIRD-ORDER MATERIAL OFFERS LARGE NONLINEAR EFFECTS AND PICOSECOND SPEEDS AT THE SAME TIME. NONLINEAR OPTICAL LIQUIDS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED WITH EXCELLENT HIGH SPEED INTENSITY INDUCED REFRACTIVE INDEX CHANGES, BUT BY THEMSELVES LIQUIDS CAN PERFORM ONLY A FEW DESIRED FUNCTIONS. IN OTHER MATERIALS AREAS, COMPOSITES HAVE EFFECTIVELY COMBINING PROPERTIES. IN THIS PROPOSAL WE EXPLORE A NEW CLASS OF COMPOSITES MADE BY INFUSING POROUS PHOTOPOLYMER HOLOGRAPHIC STRUCTURES WITH NONLINEAR OPTICAL LIQUIDS TO MAKE AN OPTICALLY NONLINEAR HOLOGRAM WHOSE GRATING EFFECTS ARE SWITCHED ON BY AN INTENSE LASER BEAM. SUCH COMPOSITES MAY BE COMPARED TO A SYNTHETIC PHOTOREFRACTIVE GRATING OF GOOD OPTICAL QUALITY, HIGH DIFFRACTION EFFICIENCY, LOW COSTAND UNLIMITED SIZE. AN OPTICALLY ACTIVATED FIBER OPTIC SWITCH IS ONE PROMISING APPLICATION; LASER PROTECTION IS ANOTHER. AS MORE SENSITIVE LIQUIDS ARE DEVELOPED, OTHER USES MAY INCLUDE SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATORS, OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS AND OTHER OPTICAL COMPUTING ELEMENTS. PHASE I EXPERIMENTS WILL TEST THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT OF AN OPTICALLY INDUCED NONLINEAR HOLOGRAM IN A LIQUID/POLYMER COMPOSITE.