Geometries and applications of active fiber bundles

摘要

Active fiber bundles (FBs) are aimed to model photonic switching and processing in 3-D without the restrictions of the photonic technology. The 2-D photonic architectures are assumed to be implemented by networks of directional couplers (DCs) and Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs), respectively. For the implementation several crucial problems are expected: (1) proper operation of the spatial couplers/switches (nonblocking interconnections) and (2) coupling in the interstage interconnection section mainly caused by parallel and crossing fibers/waveguides (WGs). For the design of proper operating switches (refinement of couplers) the application of decoupling concepts of modern control theory is proposed. The final goal is to translate the refined couplers into integrated photonic architectures rather than into additional lightwave circuits (LWCs) which simply would increase the coupling. The decoupling concepts are reviewed. The paper is an attempt to prepare for applying well-known system engineering concepts to the upcoming technology of photonics.