Electrooptical branching waveguide switches and their application to 1 × 4 optical switching networks

This paper presents design considerations and experimental results of single-mode branching waveguide switches in LiNbO3for the application to optical switching networks. The extinction ratios of 15 and 25 dB were obtained for symmetric and asymmetric structures, respectively. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical ones. 1 × 4 optical switching networks using the branching waveguide switches are also demonstrated.