Abstract

All-optical switches exploiting the sub-picosecond response time of the Kerr effect in glass fibers are promising for future multi-hundred-gigabit-per-second transmission systems. Although Kerr gates employing short fibers require in general higher switching powers and/or highly nonlinear glasses, their application can lead to considerable reduction of the dead time of high-bit-rate telecommunications. Previously, 50-GHz Kerr demultiplexing using polarization rotation has been demonstrated in a 15-m-long birefringent glass fiber¹ and chalcogenite have permitted glass fibers low-power operation at 100-GHz by using only 1-m fiber lengths.²

© 1995 Optical Society of America