Acousto-optic Bragg diffraction in a LiNbO3 channel-planar composite waveguide with application to optical computing

Successful experimentation on acousto-optic Bragg diffraction in a LiNbO3 composite waveguide that consists of an array of parallel but uncoupled channel waveguides directly extended to a single-mode planar waveguide and a titanium-indiffused proton-exchanged (TIPE) microlens array is reported for the first time. A channel-waveguide array, a planar waveguide, a linear TIPE microlens array, a 500-MHz surface acoustic wave transducer, and an integrating lens have all been integrated in a substrate size of 0.2×1.0×2.0 cm to form an integrated acousto-optic Bragg modulator that should find a variety of applications in optical computing, signal processing, and communications. The resulting modulator module has been utilized to perform matrix-vector multiplication.