Femtosecond Operation of a Polarization-Discriminating Symmetric Mach-Zehnder All-Optical Switch and Improvement in Its High-Repetition Operation (Joint Special Issue on Photonics in Switching : Systems and Devices)

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We experimentally demonstrate the ultrafast and high-repetition capabilities of a polarization-discriminating symmetric Mach-Zehnder (PD-SMZ) all-optical switch. This switch, as well as an original symmetric Mach-Zehnder (SMZ) all-optical switch, is based on a highly efficient but slowly relaxing band-filling effect that is resonantly excited in a passive InGaAsP bulk waveguide. By using a mechanism that cancels out the effect of the slow relaxation, ultrafast switching is attained. We achieve a switching time of 200fs and demultiplexing of 1.5Tbps, showing the applicability of the SMZ or PD-SMZ all-optical switches to optical demultiplexing of well over 1Tbps for the first time. High-repetition capability, which is another important issue apart from the switching speed, is also verified by using control pulses at a repetition rate of 10.5GHz. We also discuss the use of nonlincarity in a semiconductor optical amplifier to further reduce the control-pulse energy.
社団法人電子情報通信学会の論文
1999-02-25