On the feasibility of full pattern-operated all-optical XOR gate with single semiconductor optical amplifier-based ultrafast nonlinear interferometer

The possibility of implementing an ultrafast all-optical XOR gate using a single semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based ultrafast nonlinear interferometer (UNI) is theoretically investigated and demonstrated. For this purpose a comprehensive model that characterizes the performance of a SOA when it is successively driven by two strong pseudorandom binary sequences is applied to simulate the specific module under dual rail switching mode of operation. In this manner an extensive set of curves is obtained allowing to analyze and evaluate the impact of the input data, SOA and interferometer critical parameters on the fully loaded Q-factor. Their thorough study and interpretation reveals that the satisfaction of their requirements in order to render acceptable this metric is feasible from a technological perspective and thus if their selection is made according to the extracted guidelines then pattern-free and error-free modulo-2 arithmetic can be straightforwardly realized at 20 Gb/s. This prediction can be of practical interest in simplifying and assisting the design of more sophisticated interconnections of enhanced combinatorial and sequential functionality in which the XOR gate is the core logical unit.     

On the compensation of chirp induced from semiconductor optical amplifier on RZ data using optical delay interferometer

The capability of an optical delay interferometer (ODI) to compensate the chirp induced on return-to-zero pulses amplified by a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) when operated under stressful conditions for its gain dynamics is investigated and demonstrated through extensive numerical simulation. The phase response of the ODI, which through its variation per time increment determines the chirp, is calculated at its crossed output port using an explicit expression. The theoretical analysis reveals that cascading the ODI after the SOA can reduce both the magnitude of the chirp and the variations of its peaks as well as those of the amplified pulses while ensuring error-free performance even for a tight combination of the critical parameters. In order for this goal to be successfully accomplished while not distorting the pulses acted on by the ODI the offset introduced by this passive element is computationally found that it must not exceed 10% of their repetition interval. Therefore the scheme can constitute a promising technological option for efficiently exploiting the chirp of an SOA and simultaneously using the SOA as gain block for direct amplification purposes.     

Theoretical analysis of pattern effect suppression in semiconductor optical amplifier utilizing optical delay interferometer

The ability of an optical delay interferometer (ODI) to suppress the pattern effect that is inherently present in a straightforward, solitary semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) whose dynamic response is slower than the period of its driving high-speed return-to-zero (RZ) data signal is theoretically investigated. For this purpose an existing comprehensive model that simulates and links the operation of these two elements is methodically applied to their concatenated configuration. In this manner an extensive set of curves is numerically obtained, which allow to analyze and assess the impact of the input pulse energy and width as well as of the SOA carrier lifetime, linewidth enhancement factor and small signal gain on the amplitude modulation of the transmitted sequence at the output of each one of these block units. Their thorough study and interpretation reveals that the employment of the ODI can significantly reduce the value of this quality metric resulting from a single SOA only. The main offered benefit, however, is that any technical restrictions regarding the involved critical parameters can be considerably relaxed while at the same time their useful operational range can be extended. These important findings highlight the necessity of placing this passive device after the SOA and exploiting it in order to effectively alleviate the detrimental pattern-dependent degradation. This fact in conjunction with its overall practicality renders it a promising candidate for enhancing, within the frame of the proposed scheme, the performance of SOAs that are employed as pure amplification elements in fiber-optic communication systems and networking applications.     

Q-factor assessment of SOA-based ultrafast nonlinear interferometer

The performance of the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based ultrafast nonlinear interferometer (UNI) gated by an ultra high speed pseudorandom binary sequence is theoretically analyzed. For this purpose, a comprehensive model formed by a set of equations that describe the gain and phase evolution inside a SOA deployed as the nonlinear element in an interferometric switch is appropriately applied to this particular configuration. By undertaking a detailed numerical simulation, the impact of the SOA and input data key parameters on the Q-factor is thoroughly investigated and assessed enabling to extract useful design rules for their proper selection so as to optimize this metric. The calculations confirm the experimental evidence that the main technical limitation is imposed by the SOA carrier lifetime, which must be reduced below the bit period in order to avoid the deleterious consequences of the pattern effect on the switched-out pulses. Provided that this condition is satisfied and the rest of the parameters fulfill their specified requirements, the output amplitude fluctuations can be effectively eliminated resulting in a high quality eye diagram and error-free operation. The adopted model can be exploited for studying more sophisticated all-optical circuits and subsystems of enhanced functionality that rely critically on the SOA-based UNI as switching module.     

Circuit designs of ultra-fast all-optical modified signed-digit adders using semiconductor optical amplifier and Mach-Zehnder interferometer

The need for increasingly high-speed digital optical systems and optical processors demands ultra-fast all-optical logic and arithmetic units. In this paper, we combine the attractive and powerful parallelism property of the modified signed-digit (MSD) number representation with the ultra-fast all-optical switching property of the semiconductor optical amplifier and Mach-Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) to design and implement all-optical MSD adder/subtracter circuits. Non-minimized and minimized techniques are presented to design and realize efficient circuits to perform arithmetic operations. Several all-optical circuits’ designs are proposed with the objective to minimize the number of the SOA-MZI switches, the time delay units in the adders, and other optical elements. To use the switching property of the SOA-MZI structure, two bits per digit binary encoding for each of the trinary MSD digits are used. The proposed optical circuits will be very helpful in developing hardware modules for optical digital computing processors.     

Theoretical analysis and performance investigation of ultrafast all-optical Boolean XOR gate with semiconductor optical amplifier-assisted Sagnac interferometer

A comprehensive theoretical model of an ultrafast all-optical Boolean XOR gate implemented with a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-assisted Sagnac interferometer is presented. The model accounts for the SOA small signal gain, linewidth enhancement factor and carrier lifetime, the switching pulses energy and width and the Sagnac loop asymmetry. By undertaking a detailed numerical simulation, the influence of these key parameters on the metrics that determine the quality of switching is thoroughly investigated and simple design rules are extracted for their proper selection so as to ensure optimum operation. The obtained results are in good agreement with the published experimental measurements and confirm the feasibility of realizing the gate at 10 Gb/s with fairly high performance. The model can be extended for studying more complex all-optical circuits of enhanced functionality in which the XOR gate is the basic building block.     

On the output characteristics of a semiconductor optical amplifier driven by an ultrafast optical time division multiplexing pulse train

A comprehensive theoretical analysis of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) that is subject to an ultrafast optical time division multiplexing pulse stream is presented with the help of a simple but efficient model developed for this purpose. The model combines the necessary set of mathematical equations with the appropriate simplifying assumptions to describe in the time domain gain saturation and recovery for the case of multiple incoming pulses. In this manner, analytical expressions can be obtained for the power and chirp profile of the amplified pulses, essentially extending the work that has been performed for a single pulse only. This allows to identify the critical operational parameters and to investigate and evaluate their effect on these two output characteristics. The derived simulation curves are thoroughly studied to specify the limitations imposed on the SOA small signal gain and carrier lifetime as well as on the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) and energy of the input pulses and, based on a series of logical arguments, to extract useful rules concerning their selection so as to achieve improved performance with respect to the practical applications of all-optical switching and pulse compression. The obtained results indicate that due to the continuous insertion of pulses, the requirements for the SOA small signal gain and the input pulse energy are stringent than those for the case of isolated pulse amplification. The combination of these two parameters determines also the regime in which the amplifier must be biased to operate in order to ensure distortionless pulse amplification and enhanced chirp for efficient pulse compression and it has been found that low saturation is necessary for the former case whilst heavy saturation for the latter. The scopes of the corresponding requirements for the carrier lifetime and the FWHM are also tight but to a less extent and can be simply satisfied with the available photonics technology. These results are in good agreement with the available experimental data essentially proving the validity and robustness of the model. The model can be thus applied to predict the behavior of more complex all-optical circuits of enhanced functionality in which the SOA is the basic functional device.     

Small-signal analysis of two cascaded semiconductor optical amplifiers in a counterpropagating configuration

In this work, we present a small-signal analysis which reveals its usefulness to explain the evolution of the optical frequency responses obtained at the outputs of two-cascaded semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) used in a counterpropagating configuration (TC-SOA-CC). To obtained these responses, the TC-SOA-CC configuration has been implemented on an electric simulator and we have used for each SOA a multisection rate equation based model. This model permits us to study both the static and dynamic behavior of the TC-SOA-CC optical outputs in the context of bidirectional transmission. Thanks to this model, we can also obtain the evolution of the carrier lifetimes in each SOA in order to determinate their influence on the optical frequency responses. The small-signal responses derived from our small-signal analysis are given as a function of the intrinsic parameters and for each specific situation for the value of the average injected optical power. This small-signal analysis is used to comment the behavior of the frequency responses obtained by simulation at the TC-SOA-CC optical outputs. Thanks to our small-signal analysis, we explain why for such a configuration, the features of the frequency responses obtained at the SOAs optical outputs can change from a low-pass, to a high-pass, and/or to a band-pass form by varying the average injected optical powers in the SOAs.     

Parameter design and performance analysis of a ultrafast all-optical XOR gate based on quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers in nonlinear mach-zehnder interferometer

This paper presents the parameter design and performance analysis of a 160 Gb/s all-optical XOR gate based on cross-gain modulation (XGM) in a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers (QD-SOAs). Detailed numerical simulations of the QD-SOA parameters and optical signal parameters are performed to elevate the gate performance. With the optimized parameters, a Q factor over 8 dB is obtained. The possibility of operating at higher speed of the XOR gate is demonstrated as well. The results will be helpful for the design and performance analysis of practical quantum dot devices.     

On the design of semiconductor optical amplifier-assisted Sagnac interferometer with full data dual output switching capability

The ability of a semiconductor optical amplifier assisted Sagnac interferometer to support error-free as well as pattern-independent operation at both of its output ports simultaneously when all of the incoming data can potentially be switched to them is investigated and demonstrated. For this purpose a numerical model is used to simulate the operation of the considered module so as to identify under which working conditions this full data dual output switching mode is possible. The thorough analysis and interpretation of the results obtained from the evaluation of the impact that each critical parameter has on the defined performance metrics allows to infer that meeting at the limit the criterion for the Q-factor at both outputs is determined by the transmission port for all of them but the carrier lifetime, for which the reflection port prevails. However this is not enough to guarantee that the pseudo-eye diagrams acquire their desired form because, although the amplitude modulation is adequate for both cases, the extinction ratio is low. Instead, the achievement of both logically correct and high quality switching demands further refinement of the specified minimum requirements and the selection of the key parameters in such way that the Q-factor at the reflection port is optimized. The design rules derived from this procedure can be useful for enabling the implementation of complex all-optical circuits and subsystems that exploit the specific SOA-based interferometric structure as the core building element.     

Method of implementing frequency encoded multiplexer and demultiplexer systems using nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifiers

Multiplexing and demultiplexing are the essential parts of any communication network. In case of optical multiplexing and demultiplexing the coding of the data as well as the coding of control signals are most important issues. Many encoding/decoding mechanisms have already been developed in optical communication technology. Recently frequency encoding technique has drawn some special interest to the scientific communities. The advantage of frequency encoding technique over any other techniques is that as the frequency is fundamental character of any signal so it remains unaltered in reflection, refraction, absorption, etc. during transmission of the signal and therefore the system will execute the operation with reliability. On the other hand, the switching speed of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) is sufficiently high with property of best on/off contrast ratio. In our present communication we propose a method of implementing a ‘4-to-1’ multiplexer (MUX) and a ‘1-to-4’ demultiplexer (DEMUX) exploiting the switching character of nonlinear SOA with the use of frequency encoded control signals. To implement the ‘4-to-1’ MUX and ‘1-to-4’ DEMUX system, the frequency selection by multiquantum well (MQW)-grating filter-based SOA has been used for frequency routing purpose. At the same time, the polarization rotation character of SOA has also been exploited to get the desired purpose. Here the fast switching action of SOA with reliable frequency encoded control input signals, it is possible to achieve a faithful MUX/DEMUX service at tera-Hz operational speed.     

Method of state code matrixes in the realization of optical switching using Perfect Shuffle

Based on the Left Perfect Shuffle (LPS) optical communication network constructed by cascade multi-stage LPS interconnection, using Looping algorithm, any arbitrary sequence of the input signals can be realized. However, instead of obtaining the simultaneous state codes of the same level node switches through mathematical analytical expressions directly, only routing tags of each channel can be obtained through mathematical analytical expressions so as to draw out topological chart of the network to obtain the state codes implied in the chart. Thus, the states of the switches cannot be directly programmed and controlled by computer in practical application. In this paper, based on the Looping algorithm, a method of stage code matrixes is presented to resolve this problem. By using the method, the simultaneous state codes of the same level’s four node switches can be directly obtained, which is convenient for the computer to provide controlled signals needed to finish the permutation for each node switch. The method of stage code matrixes provides further theoretical basis for the realization of optical switching by integration of Perfect Shuffle and high-speed optical switches.     

All-optical switching and nonlinear optical properties of HBT in ethanol solution

This paper demonstrates an all-optical switching model system comprising a single pulsed pump beam at 355 nm and a CW He--Ne signal beam at 632.8 nm with 2-(2^\prime -hydroxyphenyl)benzothiazole (HBT) in ethanol solution. The origins of the optical switching effect were discussed. By the study of nonlinear optical properties for HBT in ethanol solvent, this paper verified that the excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) effect of HBT and the thermal effect of solvent worked on quite different time scales and together induced the change of the refractive index of HBT solution, leading to the signal beam deflection. The results indicated that the HBT molecule could be an excellent candidate for high-speed and high-sensitive optical switching devices.     

光学超晶格中级联参量过程制备纠缠光子对

探索制备纠缠光子对的新途径是量子光学领域的一个研究热点.从理论上证明在准周期极化 的光学超晶格晶体中的级联参量过程能够产生纠缠光子对.分别利用脉冲和连续的532nm抽运 光在一块准周期极化的 LiTaO3晶体中同时实现非简并参量下转换（产生信号光与闲置光 ）与和频（闲置光与抽运光和频生成和频光）的级联参量过程，获得630nm的信号光与460nm 的和频光.指出信号光与和频光之间存在纠缠关联性质.该方案的优点是可产生短波长的纠缠 光子对. 关键词： 准相位匹配 级联参量过程 光量子纠缠态     

An all optical method of implementing a wavelength encoded simultaneous binary full adder-full subtractor unit exploiting nonlinear polarization rotation in semiconductor optical amplifier

Full adders and full subtractors are the basic circuit elements of any digital data processor in electronics as well as in the all optical domain. Again the wavelength dependent encoding/decoding techniques have established itself as a very promising and efficient tool having some inherent and unique advantages relative to the other well known intensity or polarization or phase dependent optical data encoding mechanisms. In this communication, the authors therefore propose a new scheme of implementing a wavelength encoded complete binary full adder-full subtractor unit in the all optical domain using the wavelength conversion by the nonlinear polarization rotation in a single semiconductor optical amplifier. The interacting signals are counter propagating in the semiconductor optical amplifier and hence can be set at the same wavelength. To realize the binary logic wavelength dependent encoding/decoding mechanism is exploited in our proposed scheme of full adder-full subtractor unit. Also the optical add/drop multiplexing employing the special filtering property of the semiconductor optical amplifier is utilized for the designing of the all optical system.     

All-optical NRZ-OOK-to-RZ-OOK format conversions with tunable duty cycles using nonlinear polarization rotation of a semiconductor optical amplifier

We experimentally demonstrate an all-optical 10 Gb/s format conversion from non-return-to-zero (NRZ) on-off-keying (OOK) to return-to-zero (RZ)-OOK with tunable duty cycle in the whole C-band using nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) arising in an semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The experimental results show that, by tuning the polarizer at the SOA output, an RZ signal with tunable duty cycle from 33% to 66% could be obtained with an extinction ratio(ER) over 10 dB. In addition, we show that the NRZ-to-RZ conversion with duty cycle of 33-66% can be obtained with less than 1 dB power penalty at the bit error ratio (BER) of 10⁻⁹. The device can facilitate the cross-connection between optical transmission networks employing different modulation formats.     

A novel all optical method of implementing an n-bit wavelength encoded complete digital data comparator using nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifiers

Data comparator is the integral part of arithmetic and logical unit of any electronic or optical data processor. Due to some inherent limitations of electronics it cannot be possible to obtain a super fast operation (over terahertz limit) from electronic comparators. Again wavelength encoding technique has been established as an excellent one over other existing optical data encoding techniques. Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) technologies have shown their strong potentiality of realizing many all-optical systems. In this communication the authors have proposed a new scheme of developing all-optical wavelength encoded n bit binary comparator exploiting the four-wave mixing, wavelength filtering, wavelength conversion and nonlinear polarization rotation capabilities property of nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifiers. The scheme can be used for comparing signed and unsigned optical binary data of any bit wide numbers as well. The comparator is especially suitable for use as a building block in a larger optical circuit, such as in an all optical telecommunications switch.     

非线性光纤环镜在受激布里渊散射慢光级联系统中的可行性研究

基于非线性光纤环镜(NOLM)的脉冲压缩特性,分析了NOLM在基于受激布里渊散射(SBS)慢光级联系统中对延迟脉冲的影响.利用环形结构来模拟多次级联,有效地降低了系统的复杂度,得到了在不同抽运光功率和级联次数下脉冲的延迟输出特性.理论分析表明,NOLM可以有效地抑制SBS慢光级联系统中延迟脉冲的展宽,抽运光功率决定了展宽因子的变化趋势及最终稳定值的大小,展宽因子在级联4次时趋于稳定值,恰当选取抽运光功率可实现脉冲的零展宽延迟;改变抽运光功率和级联次数可以实现延迟量的连续可调,且延迟量理论上不受限制;增大抽 关键词： 慢光 脉冲压缩 非线性光纤环镜 受激布里渊散射     

Comparison of different switching techniques in a cavity soliton laser

We compare three different switching techniques for the control of cavity solitons in a VCSEL-based cavity soliton laser, one incoherent and the other two semicoherent with different injection frequencies. We show that the switching dynamics and energies can be very different depending on the type of injection.     

Optical switching based on the manipulation of microparticles in a colloidal liquid using strong scattering force

This paper demonstrates the realization of an optical switch by optically manipulating a large number of polystyrene spheres contained in a capillary.The strong scattering force exerted on polystyrene spheres with a large diameter of 4.3 μm is employed to realize the switching operation.A transparent window is opened for the signal light when the polystyrene spheres originally located at the beam centre are driven out of the beam region by the strong scattering force induced by the control light.The switching dynamics under different incident powers is investigated and compared with that observed in the optical switch based on the formation of optical matter.It is found that a large extinction ratio of ～ 30 dB and fast switching-on and switching-off times can be achieved in this type of switch.