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Applied Physics Letters

All-optical routing networks based on bistable interferometers

Gerald S. Buller, C. R. Paton, Stanley Desmond Smith, Andrew Walker

Published Dec 19, 1988• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The possibility of using bistable nonlinear Fabry–Perot interferometers as wide-band data transparent all-optical spatial switches has been investigated. It has been shown that three such devices, switching between transmitting and reflecting states, can form a 1×4 optical routing network: controlled purely by coded header pulses, preceding the data stream. The prospects for developing the performance of switches of this type towards the level required in practical telecommunications systems are discussed.

DOI
10.1063/1.100214

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The possibility of using bistable nonlinear Fabry–Perot interferometers as wide-band data transparent all-optical spatial switches has been investigated. It has been shown that three such devices, switching between transmitting and reflecting states, can form a 1×4 optical routing network: controlled purely by coded header pulses, preceding the data stream. The prospects for developing the performance of switches of this type towards the level required in practical telecommunications systems are discussed.
The phenomenon of optical bistability (OB), including the so-called transverse effects in distributed OB-systems, offers additional opportunities for development of new architecture designs in optical systems of information processing and communications. In particular, this contribution deals with a class of all-optical multiplexers/demultiplexers (MDM) for data redirecting and processing in the nodes of fiber-optical communication channels and networks. Their specific features are dynamic connection remapping and the possibility of applying WDM/DWDM techniques. As switching elements optically nonlinear and bistable thin-film Fabry-Perot interferometers (TFI) are used. Thus the developed MDM are capable of operating at several wavelengths that correspond to the carrier frequency set of working bands of WDM/DWDM systems.
The evolution of switching wave fronts in thin-layer bistable Fabry-Perot interferometers with a specified topology of the transverse distribution of the optical thickness of an intermediate layer is studied. The conditions of passage of switching waves through the boundary between regions with different thicknesses and of tunneling of waves through a barrier of a variable thickness and width formed by two such boundaries are determined by numerical modeling. The possibilities of the formation of planar waveguide channels, regions of retardation and acceleration of the motion of switching waves, and points of the splitting and joining of their fronts are demonstrated, as well as the possibility of creating planar structures on this basis that can perform optical logic operations.
Nonlinear semiconductor waveguides are investigated with respect to their use for optical bistability and temporal optical switching with results given for silicon-on-sapphire devices. The performance of the waveguides is assessed with comparisons to nonlinear Fabry-Perot cavities, and the conditions for optical bistability are theoretically shown to be possible by combining a waveguide and a diffraction-grating coupler. Structures experimentally investigated include semiconductor layers epitaxially grown on substrates having low refractive indices. Optical switching is reported on reflected or transmitted beams and on the guided-wave intensity by means of excitation pulses in the nanosecond or picosecond range. The data confirm the usefulness of nonlinear waveguides as alternative devices for temporal optical switching and logic-gate development in part due to their good switching times.