Optical switch and switching method

Abstract

An optical switch that switches an optical path of signal light obtained by modulating carrier light by a control signal and a data signal includes a mirror and a half mirror, an optical modulation element that reflects or refracts the signal light reflected by the mirror and the half mirror and includes cells each having an independently set phase modulation amount, a light detector that detects, at once, intensities of beams of the signal light passing through the half mirror and reflected by the mirror and the half mirror different times, and a controller that decodes the control signal from the detected intensities and sets the independently set phase modulation amount of each of the cells such that the signal light is emitted in a direction corresponding to the control signal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.