The use of microlenses for making spatially variant optical interconnections

Abstract

The authors have demonstrated the operation of spatially variant optical interconnections using microlenses. Each connection is made by imaging an element of the source onto an element of the detector by an afocal pair of lenses in which lateral displacement of the second lens controls the angular deviation of the bundle of rays. They used microlenses of 250 mu m diameter made by melting photoresist and have demonstrated an 8*8 one-dimensional cyclic shift, a two-dimensional cyclic shift and a two-dimensional perfect shuffle.