High-speed optical signal processing using semiconductor optical amplifiers

The authors report on all-optical switching devices based on semiconductoroptical amplifiers (SOA) in applications for optical time division multiplexing (OTDM)transmission technology. The report includes a discussion on the basicproperties of an SOA, on the nonlinear processes of cross-phase modulation andfour-wave mixing in the SOA used for all-optical switching, and on theapplication of the SOA as demultiplexer, add-drop multiplexer, clock recoveryand wavelength converter. The devices considered here operate at data rates inexcess of Gb80, where electrical signal processing is not available today.