All-optical Switching Research Articles

Analysis of high-contrast all-optical dual-wavelength switching in asymmetric dual-core fibers.

We systematically present experimental and theoretical results for the dual-wavelength switching of 1560 nm, 75 fs signal pulses (SPs) driven by 1030 nm, and 270 fs control pulses (CPs) in a dual-core fiber (DCF). We demonstrate a switching contrast of 31.9 dB, corresponding to a propagation distance of 14 mm, achieved by launching temporally synchronized SP-CP pairs into the fast core of the DCF with moderate inter-core asymmetry. Our analysis employs a system of three coupled propagation equations to identify the compensation of the asymmetry by nonlinearity as the physical mechanism behind the efficient switching performance.

ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA ĐỘ KẾT HỢP ĐƯỢC TẠO BỞI PHÁT XẠ TỰ PHÁT VÀ BƠM KHÔNG KẾT HỢP LÊN CHUYỂN MẠCH TOÀN QUANG TRONG MÔI TRƯỜNG NGUYÊN TỬ BA MỨC BẬC THANG KHI CÓ MẶT CỦA PHA TƯƠNG ĐỐI

This paper investigates the impact of spontaneously generated coherence (SGC) and relative phase on the propagation of a probe laser pulse in the presence of an incoherent pump field. It was discovered that when the control laser field is turned on, the medium forms an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect. Hence, the propagation of the probe laser pulse has a like-soliton form/shape. On the contrary, the probe laser field is rapidly attenuated when the control laser field is turned off. This feature allows the creation of a mechanism to turn “off” and “on” the probe laser field through “turning off” and “on” the control laser field, i.e., an all-optical switching mechanism based on EIT. Besides intensity and frequency, the laser field is also characterized by polarization and phase. The EIT has the nature of quantum interference, so it is very sensitive to changes in polarization, especially in the presence of relative phase between laser fields. Therefore, they also significantly affect pulse propagation and optical switching performance. The research results could be helpful for experimental observations or applications in photonic devices such as logic gates, quantum optical information processors, and quantum computers.

All-optical switching at the two-photon limit with interference-localized states

All-optical switching at the two-photon limit with interference-localized states

Thermo-plasmon-assisted all-optical switches based on coupled micro-cavities

Given the major applications of optical switches in the next generation electronics, plasmon assisted all-optical switch is proposed based on plasmonic micro ring arrays covered with the graphene layer. For this purpose, we use a laser writing system to fabricate micro hole arrays and cover them by plasmonic gold thin film via sputtering machine, with chemical vapor deposition method being used to produce graphene layer. After theoretically and experimentally evaluating the plasmonic substrate, we use ellipsometric method to characterize the optical modes of the samples. Furthermore, the all-optical and gated switches response is recorded for the fabricated sample. Our results show phase delay plasmon induced switching as well as thermo-plasmonic affected benefit for the proposed switching structure in the order of 0.29 s (duty cycle). The suggested switch with its low power consumption, small size, and easier and low-cost fabrication process can open new insight into plasmon-assisted all-optical switches.

Fractional Photoconduction and Nonlinear Optical Behavior in ZnO Micro and Nanostructures

A fractional description for the optically induced mechanisms responsible for conductivity and multiphotonic effects in ZnO nanomaterials is studied here. Photoconductive, electrical, and nonlinear optical phenomena exhibited by pure micro and nanostructured ZnO samples were analyzed. A hydrothermal approach was used to synthetize ZnO micro-sized crystals, while a spray pyrolysis technique was employed to prepare ZnO nanostructures. A contrast in the fractional electrical behavior and photoconductivity was identified for the samples studied. A positive nonlinear refractive index was measured on the nanoscale sample using the z-scan technique, which endows it with a dominant real part for the third-order optical nonlinearity. The absence of nonlinear optical absorption, along with a strong optical Kerr effect in the ZnO nanostructures, shows favorable perspectives for their potential use in the development of all-optical switching devices. Fractional models for predicting electronic and nonlinear interactions in nanosystems could pave the way for the development of optoelectronic circuits and ultrafast functions controlled by ZnO photo technology.

Singular optical propagation properties of two types of one-dimensional anti- PT -symmetric periodic ring optical waveguide networks

Two types of one-dimensional (1D) anti- PT -symmetric periodic ring optical waveguide networks, consisting of gain and loss materials, are constructed. The singular optical propagation properties of these networks are investigated. The results show that the system composed of gain materials exhibits characteristics of ultra-strong transmission and bidirectional reflection. Conversely, the system composed of loss materials demonstrates equal transmittance and reflectance at some frequencies. In both the systems, a new type of total reflection phenomenon is observed. When the imaginary part of the refractive indices of waveguide segments is smaller than 10−5, the system shows bidirectional transparency with the transmittance tending to be 1 and reflectivity to be smaller than 10−8 at some bands. When the refractive indices of the waveguide segments are real, the system will be bidirectional transparent at the full band. These findings may deepen the understanding of anti- PT -symmetric optical systems and optical waveguide networks, and possess potential applications in efficient optical energy storage, ultra-sensitive optical filters, ultra-sensitive all-optical switches, integrated optical chips, stealth physics, and so on.

Plasmon mediated coherent population oscillations in molecular aggregates

The strong coherent coupling of quantum emitters to vacuum fluctuations of the light field offers opportunities for manipulating the optical and transport properties of nanomaterials, with potential applications ranging from ultrasensitive all-optical switching to creating polariton condensates. Often, ubiquitous decoherence processes at ambient conditions limit these couplings to such short time scales that the quantum dynamics of the interacting system remains elusive. Prominent examples are strongly coupled exciton-plasmon systems, which, so far, have mostly been investigated by linear optical spectroscopy. Here, we use ultrafast two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy to probe the quantum dynamics of J-aggregate excitons collectively coupled to the spatially structured plasmonic fields of a gold nanoslit array. We observe rich coherent Rabi oscillation dynamics reflecting a plasmon-driven coherent exciton population transfer over mesoscopic distances at room temperature. This opens up new opportunities to manipulate the coherent transport of matter excitations by coupling to vacuum fields.

Highly efficient nonlinear vortex beam generation by using a compact nonlinear fork grating

Vortex beams with an orbital angular momentum (OAM) are extremely important in optical trapping, optical micromachining, high-capacity optical communications, and quantum optics. Nonlinear generation of such a vortex beam enables vortex beams to be obtained at new wavelengths, which opens up new possibilities for all-optical switching and manipulation of vortex beams. However, previous nonlinear vortex beam generation suffers from either low efficiency or low-level integration. Here, we use the technique of ultraviolet photolithography-assisted inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching to realize a compact nonlinear fork grating for high-efficiency nonlinear vortex beam generation. In our experiment, the depth of such a compact nonlinear fork-grating structure can be precisely controlled by etching time. The vortex beams with a topological charge of l = ±1, ± 2, ± 3 can be generated in the far field, and the normalized nonlinear conversion efficiency of such nonlinear vortex beam is 189% W−1cm−2. Our method not only provides an efficient and compact method for nonlinear vortex beam manipulation but also suits for timesaving and large-area nonlinear functional device fabrication.

All-Optical Switches for Optical Soliton Interactions in a Birefringent Fiber

Interactions among optical solitons can be used to develop photonic information processing devices such as all-optical switches and all-optical logic gates. It is the key to achieve high-speed, high-capacity all-optical networks and optical computers, which is also important in academy. We study the properties of all-optical switches of optical solitons in birefringent fibers, based on the coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. It is found that under different initial conditions we can achieve all-optical switching functions. We also study the influence of different physical parameters of birefringent fibers on all-optical soliton switching. The relevant conclusions are conducive to achieving the all-optical switching function of optical solitons in birefringent fibers, providing useful guidance for widespread applications of optical soliton all-optical switches in birefringent fibers of communications.

Polaronic Nonlinear Optical Response and All-Optical Switching Based on an Ionic Metal Oxide.

It has been well-established that light-matter interactions, as manifested by diverse linear and nonlinear optical (NLO) processes, are mediated by real and virtual particles, such as electrons, phonons, and excitons. Polarons, often regarded as electrons dressed by phonons, are known to contribute to exotic behaviors of solids, from superconductivity to photocatalysis, while their role in materials' NLO response remains largely unexplored. Here, the NLO response mediated by polarons supported by a model ionic metal oxide, TiO2, is examined. It is observed that the formation of polaronic states within the bandgap results in a dramatic enhancement of NLO absorption coefficient by over 130 times for photon energies in the sub-bandgap regions, characterized by a 100fs scale ultrafast response that is typical for thermalized electrons in metals. The ultrafast polaronic NLO response is then exploited for the development of all-optical switches for ultrafast pulse generation in near-infrared (NIR) fiber lasers and modulation of optical signal in the telecommunication band based on evanescent interaction on a planar waveguide chip. These results suggest that the polarons supported by dielectric ionic oxides can fill the gaps left by dielectric and metallic materials and serve as a novel platform for nonlinear photonic applications.

Dynamics of twin pulse propagation and dual-optical switching in a Λ + Ξ atomic medium

Optical bistability (OB) and optical multistability (OM) as well as optical soliton and all-optical switching have been successfully established in a lambda + cascade-type five-level atomic medium under electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) regimes. For this configuration, three laser fields are required to excite atomic transitions. The probe laser field with two circularly left- and right-polarized components excites atoms in a lambda-type configuration. Meanwhile, two coupling laser fields excite atoms in a ladder-type configuration. In this way, the above optical phenomena can occur with two frequency channels corresponding to the circularly left- and right-polarized light components. By adjusting the strength/direction of the static magnetic field in the presence of the driving field, the EIT and EIA effects can be swapped, at the same time, OB and OM effects can also be converted. In the EIT regime, the propagation of the probe pulse easily achieves the soliton state, whereas it can be completely extinguished in the EIA regime. This makes it easy to create an all-optical switching mechanism. Especially, both components of the probe field (cw) can be modulated into a synchronous or asynchronous square pulse according to the modulation of the driving field. The results obtained from the investigated model may provide merits of the applications for optical storage and all-optical switching for multi-channel optical communications.

Transient Non-Collinear Magnetic State for All-Optical Magnetization Switching.

Resonant absorption of a photon by bound electrons in a solid can promote an electron to another orbital state or transfer it to a neighboring atomic site. Such a transition in a magnetically ordered material could affect the magnetic order. While this process is an obvious road map for optical control of magnetization, experimental demonstration of such a process remains challenging. Exciting a significant fraction of magnetic ions requires a very intense incoming light beam, as orbital resonances are often weak compared to above-band-gap excitations. In the latter case, a sizeable reduction of the magnetization occurs as the absorbed energy increases the spin temperature, masking the non-thermal optical effects. Here, using ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy, this work is able to resolve changes in the magnetization state induced by resonant absorption of infrared photons in Co-doped yttrium iron garnet, with negligible thermal effects. This work finds that the optical excitation of the Co ions affects the two distinct magnetic Fe sublattices differently, resulting in a transient non-collinear magnetic state. The present results indicate that the all-optical magnetization switching (AOS) most likely occurs due to the creation of a transient, non-collinear magnetic state followed by coherent spin rotations of the Fe moments.

Multipole engineering by displacement resonance: a new degree of freedom of Mie resonance

The canonical studies on Mie scattering unravel strong electric/magnetic optical responses in nanostructures, laying foundation for emerging meta-photonic applications. Conventionally, the morphology-sensitive resonances hinge on the normalized frequency, i.e. particle size over wavelength, but non-paraxial incidence symmetry is overlooked. Here, through confocal reflection microscopy with a tight focus scanning over silicon nanostructures, the scattering point spread functions unveil distinctive spatial patterns featuring that linear scattering efficiency is maximal when the focus is misaligned. The underlying physical mechanism is the excitation of higher-order multipolar modes, not accessible by plane wave irradiation, via displacement resonance, which showcases a significant reduction of nonlinear response threshold, sign flip in all-optical switching, and spatial resolution enhancement. Our result fundamentally extends the century-old light scattering theory, and suggests new dimensions to tailor Mie resonances.

Ultrafast nonlinear absorption in MoTe2 and MoTe2/MoS2 nanocomposite films and its application to all-optical logic gates

We present a detailed theoretical analysis of ultrafast saturable absorption (SA) and reverse SA (RSA) in MoTe2 nano-films with femtosecond (fs) laser pulses at 800 nm. A transition from RSA to SA occurs on increasing the thickness from 30 nm to 80 nm at a constant pump intensity of 141 GW cm−2. On the other hand, a transition from SA to RSA occurs upon increasing the pump intensity in an 80 nm thick MoTe2 nano-film. Theoretical results are in good agreement with reported experimental results. The effect of pump pulse intensity, pulse width, nonlinear absorption coefficient and sample thickness has been studied to optimize the SA ↔ RSA transition. The results for low-power and high contrast all-optical switching in MoTe2 nano-films have been used to design all-optical fs NOT, OR, AND, as well as the universal all-optical NOR and NAND logic gates. The SA behavior of MoTe2/MoS2 nanocomposite films has been used to design all-optical AND and OR logic gates. The nanocomposite films of MoTe2/MoS2 possess a larger nonlinear optical response in comparison to MoTe2 and MoS2 nano-films and, therefore, all-optical logic gates designed using nanocomposite films result in a good switching contrast compared to pure MoTe2 nano-films. Ultrafast operation at relatively low pump intensities demonstrates the applicability of MoTe2 and MoTe2/MoS2 nano-films for ultrafast all-optical information processing.

GaN film optical nonlinearity: wavelength dependent refractive index for All-Optical switching application

Gallium Nitride (GaN) is fast becoming a potential replacement for silicon in complex electronic and photonics circuitries and systems. At higher optical intensity, optical effects such as non-linear effects would become non-trivial. To this end, we investigated nonlinear optical properties of metal–organic chemical vapor deposited GaN. Specifically, continuous-wave laser Z-scan techniques were employed to obtain nonlinear refractive index, n2, of a 1-µm thin layer on a c-plane sapphire substrate. FESEM, PL, XRD and EDS analysis confirmed the good quality growth of GaN thin film. We detected a reversal of polarity of the n2 value at 637 nm and 405 nm of CW laser excitation and femtosecond laser pulse at 808 nm. This is substantiated by theoretical calculation of GaN’s n2 showing sign switchover at wavelength shorter than 420 nm. This presents a new all-optical switching scheme based on the switchover of wavelength dependent n2. These findings point to opportunities for GaN-based integrated photonics for nonlinear and quantum photonics applications.

Dual control all-optical switch based on MIM door-type waveguide

In this paper, a simple plasma switch structure based on metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide with dual control of pressure and light intensity is proposed and numerically simulated by finite element method. This structure consists of two rectangular cavities and a door-type bus waveguide with a circular barrier, and produces multiple resonances which can be adjusted independently by changing structural parameters. Pressure can effectively and selectively control the switch at different working wavelengths, and light intensity can also do this when the structure is filled with Kerr nonlinear materials instead of air. The transmission responses of the structure induced by pressure and light intensity are approximate S-curve, which proves that pressure and light intensity can realize switching effect. Furthermore, when only the bottom of a rectangular cavity is filled with Kerr nonlinear materials, an Off-On-Off switching process is achieved, in which the structure is switched from Off state to On state under pressure control and then from On state to Off state under light intensity control, and the extinction parameters are larger than 0.98. The dual control switch may be a suitable candidate for composite all-optical device in optical integrated circuits.

Logic operation and all-optical switch characteristics of graphene surface plasmons.

Terahertz logic gates play a crucial role in optical signal processing and THz digitization. In this paper, we propose a design strategy for graphene-based metamaterial THz all-optical logic gate devices based on the induced transparency effect of surface isolated. Theoretically, we realize Boolean operations by coupling of a hexagonal graphene resonant cavity with dual embedded rotatable ellipses. Based on the coupled mode theory, the elliptical rotation angle of the resonator is an important factor affecting the PIT phenomenon. We control the logic input by adjusting the rotation angles of the two embedded ellipses. The analysis results show that: under the incidence of y-polarized light, the ellipse deflection angle of 0° represents the input signal '0', and the ellipse deflection angle of 30° represents the input signal '1'. Through numerical simulation, the structure realizes two logical operations of NAND and AND. Under the incidence of x-polarized light, the ellipse deflection angle of 0° represents the input signal '0', and the ellipse deflection angle of 90° represents the input signal '1'. Through numerical simulation, the structure realizes three logical operations of NAND, XNOR and OR. Finally, we analyze the performance of the logic gates by extinction ratio. The extinction ratio of the logic gate is up to 10.38 dB when performing OR Boolean operations. Numerically simulated all-optical logic gates can be key components of optical processing and telecommunication equipment.

Resonance cavity-enhanced all-optical switching in a GdCo alloy absorber

In spintronic applications, there is a constant demand for lower power consumption, high densities, and fast writing speed of data storage. All-optical switching (AOS) is a technique that uses laser pulses to switch the magnetic state of a recording medium without any external devices, offering unsurpassed recording rates and a simple structure. Despite extensive research on the mechanism of AOS, low energy consumption and fast magnetization reversing remain challenging engineering questions. In this paper, we propose a newly designed cavity-enhanced AOS in GdCo alloy, which promotes optical absorption by twofold, leading to a 50% reduction in energy consumption. Additionally, the time-resolved measurement shows that the time of reversing magnetization reduces at the same time. This new approach makes AOS an ideal solution for energy-effective and fast magnetic recording, paving the way for future developments in high-speed, low-power-consumption data recording devices.

Phase time delay caused by quantum effects in nearby plasmonic nanostructures of a one-dimensional photonic crystal

A one-dimensional photonic crystal (1DPC) incorporated with a defect layer containing a four-level double V-type quantum system adjacent to a plasmonic nanostructure is employed to investigate the Hartman effect. The study involves the interaction of two orthogonal circularly polarized laser beams with the defect layer, possessing identical frequencies but vary in phase and electric field amplitude. The defect layer exhibits quantum system adjacent to plasmonic nanostructure and field interaction phenomena like optical transparency, nonzero dispersion with zero absorption, gain without inversion, and others related effects. By manipulating the phase of the driving fields and probe detuning, the 1DPC can function as either a positive index material (PIM) or a negative index material (NIM), correlating to the normal and anomalous dispersion of the defect layer, respectively. The positive and negative Hartman effects for PIM and NIM, respectively, can be observed by adjusting the relative phase with respect to the driving fields. Our suggested approach might be used in optical memory, all-optical switching, all-optical routing, and interferometry.

Coupled nano-squares with optical response in nonlinear modes; Suitable substrate to control light by light for quantum applications

Nonlinear response of a nano-structure including two square quantum dots (QDs) of identical material but dissimilar sizes is discussed by considering possible quantum interferences. Density matrix approach is developed to extract physical characteristics of the system by considering Hamiltonians including couplings of the excitons to thermal bath and the possible intra-dot relaxations as well as the near field optical energy transfers (of Yukawa-type potentials) between the probable eight quantum states in subwavelength range. Realization of nonlinear behavior is studied systematically by putting the structure inside a unidirectional ring cavity and driving it by pair of dichromatic fields, that one provides a weak probe, while the other offers a strong driving component. It is shown that the absorption/dispersion properties of the probe field might be controlled by tuning the quantum interference via changing the structural features as well as the externally controlled parameters. Thus adjusting the optical bistability (OB) threshold, hysteresis cycle size or even transition from OB to multi-stability might be possible easily. Moreover, machine learning approach is proposed to evaluate how predictable are the responses of the suggested structure in various preliminary circumstances. Results clearly reflect high potential of the suggested structure for applications such as all-optical switches or memories.