Structures for response shaping in frequency and time domain, include an optical response shaper and/or a modulator device with multiple injection. The device comprises a resonator having an enclosed geometric structure, for example a ring or racetrack structure, at least two injecting optical waveguides approaching the resonator to define at least two coupling regions between the resonator and the injecting waveguides, and may define at least two Free Spectral Range states. One or both of the coupling regions has a coupling coefficient selected for a predetermined frequency or time response, and the coupling coefficient or other device parameters may be variable, in some case in real time to render the response programmably variable.

A fast optical switch can be fabricated/constructed, when vanadium dioxide (VO.sub.2) ultra thin-film or a cluster of vanadium dioxide particles (less than 0.5 microns in diameter) embedded in an ultra thin-film of a polymeric material or in a mesh of metal nanowires is activated by either an electrical pulse (a voltage pulse or a current pulse) or a light pulse just to induce rapid insulator-to-metal phase transition (IMT) in vanadium dioxide ultra thin-film or vanadium dioxide particles embedded in an ultra thin-film of a polymeric material or in a mesh of metal nanowires. The applications of such a fast optical switch for an on-Demand optical add-drop subsystem, integrating with or without a wavelength converter are also described.

An example embodiment includes a LCOS IC. The LCOS IC includes multiple pixels, a column driver, and multiple conductive lines. The pixels are arranged in a pixel array. The column driver is configured to supply multiple signals to a column of pixels included in the pixel array. Each of the conductive lines couples the column driver to a subset of pixels in the column of pixels. The conductive lines are configured such that two or more of the signals can be supplied to two or more of the subsets of pixels with some overlapping duration.

Structures for response shaping in frequency and time domain, include an optical response shaper and/or a modulator device with multiple injection. The device comprises a resonator having an enclosed geometric structure, for example a ring or racetrack structure, at least two injecting optical waveguides approaching the resonator to define at least two coupling regions between the resonator and the injecting waveguides, and may define at least two Free Spectral Range states.

One or both of the coupling regions has a coupling coefficient selected for a predetermined frequency or time response, and the coupling coefficient or other device parameters may be variable, in some case in real time to render the response programmably variable.

The phase modulation device includes an image data generator, a gradation data generator, an adjustment voltage controller, and a reflective liquid crystal element. The image data generator generates image data corresponding to a distribution of phase change amount or a distribution of phase velocity. The gradation data generator generates gradation data corresponding to each pixel. The reflective liquid crystal element includes a pixel region having a plurality of pixel blocks, and an adjustment electrode. The adjustment voltage controller applies an adjustment voltage having a same voltage value as a driving voltage applied to a pixel electrode of the pixel block adjacent to the adjustment electrode.

This patent document provides optical processing and switching of optical channels based on mode-division multiplexing (MDM) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). In one implementation, a method is provided for processing different optical signal channels to include receiving different input optical signal channels in different optical waveguide modes and in different wavelengths; converting input optical signal channels in multimodes into single-mode optical signal channels, respectively; subsequent to the conversion, processing single-mode optical signal channels obtained from the different input optical signal channels to re-group single-mode optical signal channels into different groups of processed single-mode optical signal channels; and converting different groups of the processed single-mode optical signal channels into different groups of output optical signal channels containing one or more optical signal channels in multimodes multimode signals to direct the groups as different optical outputs.

Structures for response shaping in frequency and time domain, include an optical response shaper and/or a modulator device with multiple injection. The device comprises a resonator having an enclosed geometric structure, for example a ring or racetrack structure, at least two injecting optical waveguides approaching the resonator to define at least two coupling regions between the resonator and the injecting waveguides, and may define at least two Free Spectral Range states. One or both of the coupling regions has a coupling coefficient selected for a predetermined frequency or time response, and the coupling coefficient or other device parameters may be variable, in some case in real time to render the response programmably variable.

The phase modulation device includes an image data generator, a gradation data generator, and a reflective liquid crystal element including a pixel region. The pixel region includes a plurality of pixel blocks and a blank area. The image data generator generates image data corresponding to a distribution of phase change amount or a distribution of phase velocity based on information data. The gradation data generator generates gradation data corresponding to each pixel based on the image data. The pixel block changes a wavefront of a signal light based on a driving voltage of the voltage pattern corresponding to the gradation data. In the blank area, a same driving voltage is applied to a pixel electrode of the pixel block and the adjacent pixel electrode.

This patent document provides optical processing and switching of optical channels based on mode-division multiplexing (MDM) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). In one implementation, a method is provided for processing different optical signal channels to include receiving different input optical signal channels in different optical waveguide modes and in different wavelengths; converting input optical signal channels in multimodes into single-mode optical signal channels, respectively; subsequent to the conversion, processing single-mode optical signal channels obtained from the different input optical signal channels to re-group single-mode optical signal channels into different groups of processed single-mode optical signal channels; and converting different groups of the processed single-mode optical signal channels into different groups of output optical signal channels containing one or more optical signal channels in multimodes multimode signals to direct the groups as different optical outputs.

The phase modulation device includes an image data generator, a gradation data generator, and a reflective liquid crystal element including a pixel region. The pixel region includes a plurality of pixel blocks and a blank area. The image data generator generates image data corresponding to a distribution of phase change amount or a distribution of phase velocity based on information data. The gradation data generator generates gradation data corresponding to each pixel based on the image data. The pixel block changes a wavefront of a signal light based on a driving voltage of the voltage pattern corresponding to the gradation data. In the blank area, a same driving voltage is applied to a pixel electrode of the pixel block and the adjacent pixel electrode.