Hierarchic and combinatorial star couplers

Opt Lett. 1984 Aug 1;9(8):368-70. doi: 10.1364/ol.9.000368.

Abstract

An interconnection method for transmissive stars is presented that permits the fabrication of arbitrarily large stars from elementary ones. Being free from multiple-path interference, this synthesis is particularly well suited for single-mode stars. The method can be implemented with any of a number of techniques; in particular, the use of recently developed high-quality 3-dB couplers should result in the synthesis of large single-mode stars with negligible excess loss.