Abstract

Guided-wave magneto-optic (MO) interactions between optical waves and magnetostatic waves (MSW) in yttrium iron garnet-gadolinium gallium garnet (YIG-GGG) waveguides¹ result from the optical grating induced by the MSW through Faraday and Cotton-Mouton effects². In a noncollinear² coplanar geometry an incident light is Bragg diffracted and mode-converted as a result. The resulting MO Bragg modulators are called guided-wave MO Bragg cells¹ in analogy with guided-wave AO Bragg cells.³ The current status of guided-wave MO Bragg cell technology is comparable with that of the guided-wave AO Bragg cells technology in the early 1980s. In this paper the most recent progress on guided-wave MO Bragg cell technology and use in light beam scanning/switching and real-time processing of wideband microwave signals at X-band is reported.

© 1992 Optical Society of America