In this program, the feasibility and analysis of a novel Fabry- Perot resonator which consists of a multiplexed volume hologram in the resonant cavity will be investigated for applications in optical communications and optical signal processing. The proposed Fabry-Perot resonator has two unique structures. First, the mirrors of the Fabry-Perot resonators are holographically fabricated in a coherently- coupled manner. Thus, the stringent alignment problems between the two mirrors are eliminated. Long cavity lengths (> 1 cm) and large aperture size (> 5 x 5 square inch) are also made possible by this coherently-coupled effect. Second a multiplexed volume hologram (containing many superimposed phase gratings) is placed in the cavity. Therefore, many multiplexed operations can be performed at the same time (i.e. high parallelism). For example, a multiple-channel narrow band wavelength division multiplexer is realizable in a single Fabry-Perot resonator. In addition, the storage capacity of the volume hologram in the resonator is dramatically increased due to the resonance effect. The Bragg selectivity of the volume hologram in the resonator is also enhanced. The proposed concept can be further extended to a number of potential devices, such as reconfigurable optical interconnects, programmable optical limiters, and multiple-channel optical logic elements.
