An optical switching and routing system using frequency tunable cleaved-coupled-cavity semiconductor lasers

A 1 × 4 optical switch based on a frequency tunable cleaved coupled cavity (C
³
) laser and a grating demultiplexer is demonstrated. The switch, which can easily be expanded to a general
N \times N
switch With
N
as high as 13 has a 2 ns access time with negligible crosstalk between the channels.