Abstract

We report on what is to our knowledge the first demonstration of all-optical switching in two integrated nonlinear directional couplers cascaded together in series. The directional couplers were fabricated from AlGaAs and operated at a wavelength of 1.53 μm, which corresponded to the half-band gap. The two devices were fabricated on the same chip, thereby eliminating coupling and reflection losses. We also report on the effects of pulse breakup.

© 1995 Optical Society of America

All-optical switching in lithium niobate directional couplers with cascaded nonlinearity

R. Schiek, Y. Baek, G. Krijnen, G. I. Stegeman, I. Baumann, and W. Sohler
Opt. Lett. 21(13) 940-942 (1996)

All-optical switching in a hybrid Mach–Zehnder interferometer as a result of cascaded second-order nonlinearity

Y. Baek, R. Schiek, and G. I. Stegeman
Opt. Lett. 20(21) 2168-2170 (1995)

All-optical switching in a nonlinear GaAlAs X junction

J. S. Aitchison, A. Villeneuve, and G. I. Stegeman
Opt. Lett. 18(14) 1153-1155 (1993)

Fast optical switching in nonlinear prism couplers

J. Fick and G. Vitrant
Opt. Lett. 20(13) 1462-1464 (1995)

Soliton switching using cascaded nonlinear-optical loop mirrors

D. A. Pattison, W. Forysiak, P. N. Kean, I. Bennion, and N. J. Doran
Opt. Lett. 20(1) 19-21 (1995)