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Science

Low-Energy Light Switches

Ian S. Osborne

Published Jun 24, 2010• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Applied Physics![Figure][1] CREDIT: [ISTOCKPHOTO.COM][2] The backbone of high-speed communications consists of optic fibers that carry information as pulses of light. Light-sensitive bistable optical resonators coupled to the fibers are capable of controlling the transmitted light, allowing access to the higher information transfer rates offered by all-optical switching. However, the relatively high amount of energy (or light intensity) required to switch an optical resonator between its two states (transmission ON, transmission OFF) can be a limiting factor with regard to power requirements. Sandhu et al. use numerical simulations to show that coherent control, or pulse shaping, of the switching light pulses can reduce the input energy requirements for switching the optical resonator. Moreover, because the peak energy input to the resonator is dependent on the phase of the input pulse, switching by phase modulation should be possible, thus offering the potential for even higher bit rates than attainable with intensity modulation–based protocols. Appl. Phys. Lett. 96 , 231108 (2010). [1]: pending:yes [2]: http://ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

DOI
10.1126/science.328.5986.1613-a

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Applied PhysicsFigure
CREDIT: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
The backbone of high-speed communications consists of optic fibers that carry information as pulses of light. Light-sensitive bistable optical resonators coupled to the fibers are capable of controlling the transmitted light, allowing access to the higher information transfer rates offered by all-optical switching. However, the relatively high amount of energy (or light intensity) required to switch an optical resonator between its two states (transmission ON, transmission OFF) can be a limiting factor with regard to power requirements. Sandhu et al. use numerical simulations to show that coherent control, or pulse shaping, of the switching light pulses can reduce the input energy requirements for switching the optical resonator. Moreover, because the peak energy input to the resonator is dependent on the phase of the input pulse, switching by phase modulation should be possible, thus offering the potential for even higher bit rates than attainable with intensity modulation–based protocols.
Appl. Phys. Lett. 96 , 231108 (2010).
The Kerr nonlinearity can be a key enabler for many digital photonic circuits as it allows access to bistable states needed for all-optical memories and switches. A common technique is to use the Kerr shift to control the resonance frequency of a resonator and use it as a bistable, optically-tunable filter. However, this approach works only in a narrow power and frequency range or requires the use of an auxiliary laser. An alternative approach is to use the asymmetric bistability between counterpropagating light states resulting from the interplay between self- and cross-phase modulation, which allows light to enter a ring resonator in just one direction. Logical high and low states can be represented and stored as the direction of circulation of light, and controlled by modulating the input power. Here we study the switching speed, operating laser frequency and power range, and contrast ratio of such a device. We reach a bitrate of 2 Mbps in our proof-of-principle device over an optical frequency range of 1 GHz and an operating power range covering more than one order of magnitude. We also calculate that integrated photonic circuits could exhibit bitrates of the order of Gbps, paving the way for the realization of robust and simple all-optical memories, switches, routers and logic gates that can operate at a single laser frequency with no additional electrical power.
In an optical bistability system consisting of an optical cavity and four-level atoms positive and negative phase shifts of an intracavity optical mode can be observed under the action of control signal pulses tuned close to certain energy levels of the atoms. The bistability hysteresis curve can thus be shifted and switching between the and high transmission states obtained in a controlled manner. Based on the above effects we have realized all-optical storage and optical switching controlled with low light power. This mechanism may be of potential use for all-optical quantum information processing.
The transmission of information as optical signals encoded on light waves traveling through optical fibers and optical networks is increasingly moving to shorter and shorter distance scales. In the near future, optical networking is poised to supersede conventional transmission over electric wires and electronic networks for computer-to-computer communications, chip-to-chip communications, and even on-chip communications. The ever-increasing demand for faster and more reliable devices to process the optical signals offers new opportunities in developing all-optical signal processing systems (systems in which one optical signal controls another, thereby adding "intelligence" to the optical networks). All-optical switches, two-state and many-state all-optical memories, all-optical limiters, all-optical discriminators and all-optical transistors are only a few of the many devices proposed during the last two decades. The "all-optical" label is commonly used to distinguish the devices that do not involve dissipative electronic transport and require essentially no electrical communication of information. The all-optical transistor action was first observed in the context of optical bistability [1] and consists in a strong differential gain regime, in which, for small variations in the input intensity, the output intensity has a very strong variation. This analog operation is for all-optical input what transistor action is for electrical inputs.
The development of the techniques to control the light flux parameters directly by the light itself has permitted us to realize the new class of devices designed for completely optical signal processing. These new devices are both one-channel facilities for fiber links (light- control switches, modulators, and optical transistors) and multichannel ones (spatial-time light modulators -- STLM), which are the basic elements for the systems of optical data processing. All of these devices are based on light-control optical elements, in which one light flux or impulse directly controls parameters of another without doing an intermediate conversion into the electric signal and back again. In order to transfer some data from the control light flux to the fundamental one, a certain optical medium is required where the transmission properties depend on the control light. Scientific work on creation of the optical medium has already been carried out for more than 20 years. By now, sensitive media with specific switching energy of E equals 10-6 + 10-8 J/cm2 and switching rate of (nu) <EQ 102 cycles/s (the structure like MLS-liquid crystal) have been created. The devices for multichannel optical data processing -- that is, STLMs -- are implemented on the base of these sensitive media.
The reflection of light at the interface between linear and nonlinear media can provide fundamentally novel nonlinear effects such as nonlinear switching from total internal reflection to partial transmission, bleaching of the interface, and bistability. The nonlinear interface is the simplest switching and bistable optical device. Unlike bistable Fabry-Perot resonators, it allows one to use broadband sources of light and remove resonant restrictions on frequency tuning, and offers potentials to attain high operating speed. Experimental demonstration of those effects shows good agreement with some of the predictions of plane-wave theory. Some of the experimental results as well as computer simulation, however, show a new feature of the phenomenon which requires further exploration.