An all-optical switch, an all-optical signal waveform reshaping element and an all-optical asymmetric demultiplexer are formed of an optical interferometer having a compact and simple structure. Nonlinear gain media are provided at positions different from each other in two arms of a Mach-Zehnder optical interferometer. Then, an optical cavity is formed by mounting a mirror on an optical input-output port in each of a first and a second multi-mode optical interferometers connected with the two arms. Furthermore, when a saturable absorption medium is placed on the mirror of one of the multi-mode optical interferometers, a mode-locked laser oscillation is induced.
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