Abstract

This paper reviews recent progress in ultrafast all-optical switching in semiconductor waveguides. Nonresonant third order optical nonlinearity is employed at photon energies just below half the band-gap energy of the semiconductor to effect ultrafast all-optical switching. Pulses as short as 150 fs have been switched without significant multiphoton absorption or pulse break up. A new resonant optical nonlinearity is reported which depends on optically induced switching of a resonant tunneling diode; the timescale of the effect is currently being investigated.

© 1995 Optical Society of America