Abstract

In recent years various types of all optical devices have been investigated using nonlinear refractive index change. Using silica fiber, ultra-fast all optical switching has been demonstrated with optical Kerr type nonlinearity. The peak optical power required for switching is in the order of few kW. The resonantly enhanced nonlinearity in Er³⁺ doped silica fiber is 6 orders of magnitude higher than silica fiber.¹ This enhanced Er³⁺ nonlinearity can be used for low power all optical switching.¹ The optical power required was 3 mW, but the switching speed was 10.6 msec. In order to achieve low switching power with an ultra fast switching speed, we consider in this paper a new type of nonlinearity from resonant Stark level manifold of Erbium ions.

© 1995 IEEE