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Applied Physics Letters

All-optical spin-dependent polarization switching in Bragg-spaced quantum well structures

W. J. Johnston, Murat Yıldırım, John P. Prineas, Arthur L. Smirl, H. M. Gibbs, G. Khitrova

Published Sep 1, 2005• 35 citations
Publisher

Abstract

All-optical polarization switching is demonstrated in a resonant photonic band-gap structure consisting of Bragg-spaced quantum wells (BSQWs). The switch takes advantage of the large spin-dependent optical nonlinearities and the ultrafast recovery present in BSQWs to produce large throughputs (greater than 40%), high contrast ratios (greater than 40 dB), and large optical bandwidths (∼0.6THz), where both switching time and sample recovery time are control-pulse-width limited.

DOI
10.1063/1.2042550

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