<title>Absorptive nonlinear semiconductor amplifiers for fast optical switching</title>

Abstract

We demonstrate optical switching using split contact semiconductor absorptive nonlinear optical amplifiers. All-optical time switching of 500 MBit/s data with a rise time of 100 ps has been demonstrated. Fall times of 85ps can be achieved by reverse biasing the absorber section of the amplifier. The switch had a minimum switching threshold of 1 iW a switch gain of 1O dB and can operate over a 60 nm wavelength range around 1 . 55pm. Such a switch may be suitable for application in packet switched networks with multi-GBit/s header speeds. Wavelength switching using the same nonlinear amplifier is also demonstrated. 400 MBit/s data was converted over 35THz from 1 . 3 1im to wavelengths between 1 . 53 . tm and 1 . 585 pm. The minimum power at 1 . 3 1 jim required was ''60 iW. Such nonlinear optical amplifiers can give added flexibility in both TDM and WDM systems and are therefore likely to play a major role in future all-optical networks.