Patent Overview

Optical apparatus for selectively coupling optical wavelength components of wavelength multiplexed optical signals from an input port to an output port includes an interferometer coupled to the input and output port. The interferometer includes a first optical path and a second optical path. A plurality of optical phase modulators is arranged in said first path to include one optical phase modulator for each wavelength component. Each wavelength component is split into a wavelength component first portion on the first optical path and a wavelength component second portion on the second optical path. Each optical phase modulator is selectively operable to phase shift the corresponding one wavelength component first potion by first or second predetermined phase shifts, whereby the wavelength components is or is not coupled from the input port to the output port.