Abstract

Ultrafast all-optical switches have many applications in the development of ultrahigh speed multi-access time-division multiplexing (TDM) networks. For instance, ultra-highspeed bitwise logic, operating at the network data rate, is required for functions such as address recognition, buffering and rate conversion in user access nodes. In some cases, rate conversion from the ultra-high-speed optical bus rate (≥ 100 Gb/s) to lower-speed data streams may be achieved via demultiplexing. To date, the record speed for bitwise logic in a semiconductor-based device, of 100 Gb/s, has been demonstrated using an ultrafast nonlinear interferometer (UNI).¹

© 1999 Optical Society of America