Patent ID: 7729579

Claim:
An optical apparatus, comprising: an optical interconnect structure including at least one optical source port, at least one optical receiver port, and at least one interconnect optical signal pathway to couple an optical signal source port and a corresponding optical signal receiver port, wherein: the optical interconnect structure includes an optical waveguide that forms at least a portion of each interconnect optical signal pathway, the optical waveguide substantially confining in at least one transverse dimension optical signals propagating in two dimensions therein as one or more optical transverse modes supported by the waveguide; each interconnect optical signal pathway includes at least one signal wavefront diffractive transformation region and a corresponding set of diffractive elements thereof; the diffractive elements of each set are collectively arranged so as to transform a portion of a corresponding input optical signal, propagating from a corresponding optical signal source port and incident on the diffractive transformation region with a corresponding input signal wavefront, into a corresponding output optical signal, emergent from the diffractive transformation region and propagating to a corresponding optical signal receiver port with a corresponding output signal wavefront; and for at least one diffractive element set, the optical source and receiver ports are arranged relative to the optical waveguide and the diffractive transformation region so that only one of the corresponding input signal wavefront or the corresponding output signal wavefront emergent from the diffractive transformation region is substantially confined in the at least one transverse dimension by the optical waveguide to propagate as the one or more optical transverse modes supported by the waveguide, and the other one of the corresponding input signal wavefront or the corresponding output signal wavefront emergent from the diffractive transformation region propagates without substantial confinement by the optical waveguide, wherein, for each diffractive element set, the corresponding input signal wavefront or the corresponding output signal wavefront is substantially confined in the at least one transverse dimension by the optical waveguide to propagate as the one or more optical transverse modes supported by the optical waveguide and is successively incident on at least one of the diffractive elements of the set.