Patent ID: 6934436

Claim:
An optical switch, comprising: A. a substrate; B. a first optical waveguide and a second optical waveguide disposed on said substrate; wherein each of said first and second waveguides comprises a multi-layer dielectric stack including alternating high and low refractive index dielectric layers, and a waveguide core disposed on said dielectric stack; C. at least one optical microcavity resonator constructed and arranged so as to optically interact with a first optical beam propagating through said first waveguide so that a frequency component of said beam that substantially matches a resonant mode of said microcavity is coupled into said microcavity and out of said microcavity onto said second optical waveguide; and D. thermo-optic means for producing a temperature gradient in said microcavity resonator so as to cause said resonant mode of said microcavity to undergo a frequency shift, whereby said frequency component of said optical radiation is prevented from coupling into said microcavity, and is transmitted through said first waveguide onto an output end thereof.