Abstract: A beam deflector 1 for a beam of light 9 comprises: a first plate of electro-optical material disposed between a pair of electrode arrangements and a pair of plano-parallel mirrors, the refractive index of the electro-optical material being variable by the application of electric voltages, wherein a first mirror of the pair facing towards the incident light has a lower reflectivity than the second mirror, the first or second mirrors comprising a plurality of dielectric layers having refractive indices different from each other. Further, a switching system comprises: a plurality of terminals (53) for optical signals and beam deflectors (1) allocated to each other in pairs, each beam deflector being controllable such that it deflects the light beam (9) directed thereto into a selectable direction in order for the beam to enter at least one selected terminal end (55).

Abstract: The invention is directed to a cross coupler for optical communications equipment for wavelength-selectively coupling a plurality of optical input channels to a plurality of optical output channels. The cross coupler includes a spectrometer and a mirror raster. A number of mirror elements of the mirror array 30 is allocated to each optical input channel. This number of mirror elements corresponds to the number of communications channels selected in accordance with wavelength and transmittable simultaneously to an optical input channel. Correspondingly, a number of mirror elements ia allocated to each optical output channel and this number of mirror elements correspond to the number of communications channels separated by wavelength and transmittable simultaneously for optical output channels.