Abstract

The exploitation of the entire bandwidth of the fiber for optical communication requires a high speed multiplexing/demultiplexing scheme to interleave parallel low- rate data streams into a serial format for transmission in the fiber. Such systems require ultrafast signal processing at both ends of the fiber. Here we present results of alloptical demultiplexing using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as a nonlinear element in an asymmetric fiber loop mirror. The demultiplexer is based on the work in Refs. 1 and 2. The main features of this system are a low switching energy of 115 fJ (therefore semiconductor lasers drive the system), compact size, and a demultiplexing window (switching speed) tunable from tens of picoseconds to a few picoseconds, with stability and wavelength tolerance.

© 1994 Optical Society of America