Optical device with spatial light modulators for switching polarized light

An optical switching device for simultaneously and individually directing a plurality of externally derived linearly polarized optical signal beams to a selected plurality of output ports of said device, said device comprising:

• a switching matrix comprising a plurality M.times.N of switching cells arranged in M columns and N rows of said cells;
• each of said switching cells comprising first and second spatial light modulators positioned at an angle to each other for operating on optical beams received or transmitted by said cell;
• each of said spatial light modulators including an array of individually controllable pixels patterned so that corresponding pixels in a row of cells are aligned with each other along said row and corresponding pixels in a column of cells are aligned with each other along said column;
• each first spatial light modulator of a cell in the first column of said matrix and each second spatial light modulator of a cell in the last row of said matrix being positioned to receive respective portions of said plurality of externally derived optical beams or to pass optical beams from within said matrix to said output ports;
• each first spatial light modulator in a column of said matrix subsequent to said first column being positioned to directly receive or to pass optical beams with respect to a cell located in a preceding column of the same row;
• each second spatial light modulator in a predetermined row preceding said last row being positioned to directly receive or to pass optical beams with respect to a cell located in a row subsequent to said predetermined row of the same column;
• means for individually applying control signals to the pixels of each of said first and second spatial light modulators capable of rotating the polarization orientation of the received optical beam;
• and
• each of said cells further comprising a polarizing beamsplitter optically coupled to receive optical beams from the first spatial light modulator of the same cell and from the second spatial light modulator of a cell located in a preceding row of the same column, and optically coupled to receive optical beams from the second spatial light modulator of the same cell and from the first spatial light modulator of a cell located in the subsequent column of the same row, said polarizing beamsplitter permitting optical beams received with a first selected linear polarization orientation to pass therethrough undeflected, but causing optical beams received with a second selected linear polarization orientation to be deflected by an angle;
• whereby externally derived optical signal beams applied simultaneously to said first cell column or to said last cell row can propagate through said matrix under the direction of said control signals so as to reach said selected plurality of output ports without mutual interference.