Optical clock distribution using computer generated holographic optical elements

Modern digital computers consist of hundreds of thousands of transistors interconnected with each other. As the speed and complexity of these computers continues to increase, the limitations imposed by electrical interconnections are being approached. Electrical interconnections limit the speed of communications between logic elements and occupy valuable area on both circuit boards and ICs. Free space optical interconnections have the capability of eliminating many of the problems associated with electrical interconnections.;An optical clock distribution system employing computer generated holographic optical elements is built and the procedure as well as the test results of this system is detailed in this thesis. Two holographic optical elements (HOEs) were built for use in the system: a binary-phase, reflection type and a quaternary-phase, reflection type. The frequency of the clock signal used is 1.0 GHz. The results of the system test are encouraging: without electronic amplification, the recovered clock signal has a SNR of 21 dB in the case of the binary-phase HOE, and an SNR of 28 dB when employing the quaternary-phase HOE. The increase in SNR is explained by the quaternary-phase HOE's measured efficiency of 69%, as compared to 35% for that of the binary-phase HOE. As well, the characteristics of the first Bessel beam produced by illumination of an HOE with light from a diode laser are reported.