Design of switches and beam splitters by use of chaotic cavities.

We propose the construction of electromagnetic (or electronic) switches and beam splitters by use of chaotic two-dimensional multiport waveguides. A prototype two-port waveguide is locally deformed to produce a ternary incomplete horseshoe characteristic of mixed phase space (chaotic regions surrounding islands of stability where motion is regular). Owing to tunneling to the phase-space stability islands, quasi-bound states (QBS) appear. Then we attach transversal ports to the waveguide in the deformation region in positions where the phase-space structure is only slightly perturbed. We show how QBS can be guided out of the waveguide through the attached transversal ports,giving rise to frequency-selective switches and beam splitters.