Abstract

There has been great interest in optical data switching technology to meet increasing demand for massive data processing. Optical bistable devices have been considered as key elements for the optical data switching. Among the optical bistable devices, is a tandem electrode bistable laser diode (we will abbreviate this to BS-LD here). The BS-LD has various advantages over other optical bistable devices, such as large optical gain, high ON/OFF contrast, large optical output, and wide wavelength range for trigger light. The feasibility of BS-LDs as optical switching elements has been shown in 256Mb/s optical time division switching experiment¹. The main factor limiting the BS-LD switching speed was the turn-off time rather than the turn-on time, as seen in most semiconductor optical bistable devices². In order to achieve much faster switching operation in BS-LDs, it is necessary to reduce the turn-off time.

© 1987 Optical Society of America