Ultrafast (200-fs switching, 1.5-Tb/s demultiplexing) and high-repetition (10 GHz) operations of a polarization-discriminating symmetric Mach-Zehnder all-optical switch

摘要

We demonstrate 200-fs switching and 1.5-Tb/s demultiplexing with a polarization-discriminating, symmetric Mach-Zehnder (PD-SMZ) all-optical switch. This switch is based on a highly efficient but slowly relaxing band-filling effect resonantly excited in a passive InGaAsP bulk waveguide. By using a mechanism that cancels out the effect of the slow relaxation, ultrafast switching is realized. The applicability of this mechanism to optical demultiplexing of well over 1 Tb/s is experimentally demonstrated for the first time. High-repetition operation at 10 GHz with the same nonlinearity used for the present ultrafast switching is also verified.