We describe the characteristics of all-optical switching schemes based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), with particular emphasis on the role of the fast carrier dynamics. The SOA response to a single short pulse as well as to a data-modulated pulse train is investigated and the properties of schemes relying on cross-gain as well as cross-phase modulation are discussed. The possible benefits of using SOAs with quantum dot active regions are theoretically analyzed. The bandfilling characteristics and the presence of fast capture processes may allow to reach bitrates in excess of 100 Gb/s even for simple cross-gain modulation schemes.

Ultrafast all optical switching using pulse trapping by 100 fs ultrashort soliton pulse across zero dispersion wavelength is investigated. The characteristics of pulse trapping are analyzed both experimentally and numerically. Using the pulse trapping, 1 THz ultrafast all optical switching is demonstrated experimentally. Arbitral one pulse is picked off from pulse train. Pulse trapping for CW signal is also demonstrated and ultrashort pulse is generated by pulse trapping. From these investigation, it is shown that ultrafast all optical switching up to 2 THz can be demonstrated using pulse trapping.

An all-optical switch based on a single photonic crystal defect with an air-bridge configuration and two-photon absorption was proposed, fabricated and characterized. In optical measurements, we obtained a sharp defect mode with a quality factor higher than 600 at 1.55 µm. More importantly, we observed its nonlinear response to the excitation of ultrashort pulses by utilizing two-photon absorption. Nonliner refractive index change of about -410-3 was achieved at a pumping power density of 3.6109 W/cm2.

We discuss photonic crystals (PhCs) with advanced micro/nano-structres which are semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) and micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) for the purpose of realizing novel classes of PhC devices in future photonic network system. After brief introduction on advantages to implement QDs and MEMS with PhCs, we discuss optical characterization of PhC microcavity containing self-assembled InAs QDs. Modification of emission spectrum of a QD ensemble due to the resonant cavity modes is demonstrated. We also point out the feasibility of low-threshold PhC lasers with QD active media in numerical analysis. A very low threshold current of 10 µA is numerically obtained for lasing action in the multi dimensional distributed feedback mode by using realistic material parameters. Then, the basic concept for MEMS-controlled PhC slab devices is described. We show numerical results that demonstrate some of interesting functions such as the intensity modulation and the tuning of resonant frequency of cavity mode. Finally, a preliminary experiment of MEMS-based switching operation in a PhC line-defect waveguide is demonstrated.

Vertical stacking is a novel technique for building switching networks, and packing multiple compatible connections together is an effective strategy to reduce network hardware cost. In this paper, we study the crosstalk-free permutation capability of an optical switching network built on the vertical stacking of optical banyan networks to which packing strategy is applied. We first look into the nonblocking condition of this optical switching network. We then study the crosstalk-free permutation in this network by decomposing a permutation evenly into multiple crosstalk-free partial permutations (CFPPs) and realizing each CFPP in a stacked plane of the network such that a crosstalk-free permutation can be performed in a single pass. We present a rigorous proof of CFPP decomposability of a permutation and also a complete algorithm for CFPP decomposition. The possibility of a tradeoff between the number of passes and the number of planes required for realizing a crosstalk-free permutation in this network is also explored in this paper.

We propose and describe a free-space optical interconnection device with a photorefractive semi-linear resonator. The hologram in the photorefractive crystal is, in general, volatile and the erasing of it coincides with the diffraction of the signal beam. Therefore we have to reform the hologram again after several transmissions of the data or use some fixing techniques such as thermal fixing and electrical fixing. In our interconnection device, the hologram is enhanced by the feedback beam that is a part of the input signal divided by the beam splitter within semi-linear resonator, therefore the sustentation time of the connection can be extended. We explain the sustentation mechanism and investigate the optimum reflectivity of the beam splitters, which determine the feedback rate of the input signal, within feedback circuit for the high output conversion efficiency. We also analyze the coupling strength threshold for sustentation of the connection. We give a basic experiment on 33 interconnection by using BaTiO3 crystal and Ar+ laser whose wavelength is 514 [nm]. We show that the connections are held for long time without the continuous illumination of the control beam.

Crosstalk in optical switch is an intrinsic drawback of optical networks, and avoiding crosstalk is important for making optical network work properly. Horizontal expansion and vertical stacking are two basic techniques for creating nonblocking multistage interconnection networks (MINs). Rearrangeable (nonblocking) optical MINs are feasible since they have lower complexity than their strictly nonblocking counterparts. In this paper, we study the crosstalk-free permutations in rearrangeable optical MINs built on a combination of horizontal expansion and vertical stacking of banyan networks, and provide a scheme for realizing crosstalk-free permutations in this kind of optical MINs. The basic idea of this scheme is to first decompose a permutation into multiple partial permutations by using Euler Split technique, then route and realize each of these partial permutations crosstalk-free in one plane (stacked copy) of a MIN based on both the Euler Split technique and self-routing property of a banyan network. The tradeoff between the overall time complexity and hardware cost of this class of MINs is also explored in this paper.

The authors have established new switching architecture of all optical WDM network suitable for the application of video transmission. In this paper, emphasis is put on a setup of a wavelength connection based on contiguous wave-band pool and we have proposed new Wave-Band Routing and Assignment (WBRA) method which provides simple switching and high speed wavelength assignment. Assuming the environment without wavelength convertor, our wave-band switching scheme is applied to several network topologies for performance evaluation. Then effectiveness and feasibility of this scheme are confirmed from a viewpoint of the number of required wavelengths. Simulation results indicate that our proposal scheme attains lower number of required wavelengths as compared to the fixed wave-band scheme. Assuming to use wavelength convertors, we have also evaluated the situation that the number of hops is restricted.

The OptIPuter is a radical distributed visualization, teleimmersion, data mining and computing architecture. Observing that the exponential growth rates in bandwidth and storage are now much higher than Moore's Law, this major new project of several universities--currently six in the US and one in Amsterdam--exploits a new world of computing in which the central architectural element is optical networking. This transition is caused by the use of parallelism, as in supercomputing a decade ago. However, this time the parallelism is in multiple wavelengths of light, or lambdas, on single optical fibers, creating a LambdaGrid. Providing applications-centric middleware to control the LambdaGrid on a regional and global scale is a key goal of the OptIPuter and StarLight Optical Switching projects.

Three-dimensional MEMS optical switches(3D-MEMS) and planar lightwave circuit thermo-optical switches (PLC-TOSW) are suitable for use in large-scale photonic cross-connect switches (PXCs). Usually, such large-scale optical switches are created by integrating many small switch elements (such as 12 switches). Therefore, the reliability or lifetime of the individual switch element greatly affects the reliability of the PXC system. In this paper, the effect of the number and failure probability of switch elements on PXC reliability is statistically estimated. First, the equivalent number of switch elements needed to compose a large-scale PXC is determined for the switch types mentioned above. Based on this evaluation, yields and lifetimes of switch modules are estimated for each switch type. The improvement in reliability due to switch duplication (preparing spare switches) is also estimated and discussed.

Multi-channel arrayed waveguide devices are crucial for WDM optical communication systems. Multi-channel arrayed polymer-based waveguide devices have been important for reducing cost and size. This paper introduces two types of multi-channel arrayed polymer-based waveguide devices. We designed and fabricated a four-channel arrayed 22 thermo-optic switch using a low-loss polymer and a four-channel arrayed electro-optic Mach-Zehnder modulator using an electro-optic polymer. The four-channel arrayed 22 thermo-optic switch has very low power consumption and uniform performance. The switching time of the four-channel arrayed EO Mach-Zehnder modulator operating with just lumped electrodes is less than a few nanoseconds.

We calculated linear and nonlinear responses of a Kerr nonlinear microsphere sandwiched by two prisms using the excitation of whispering gallery modes due to near-field coupling. As numerical calculations, the finite-difference time-domain method that takes into account the Kerr nonlinear effect was used. We dealt with two types of spheres, i.e., the Kerr-material sphere and the dielectric sphere coated by the Kerr material. It was found that the optical switching phenomena are induced in such spheres. The switching results from the fact that the variations of the refractive index of the nonlinear spheres affect the excitation condition of the whispering gallery modes.

We fabricated ultrafast nonlinear optical films of squarylium J-aggregates and studied their properties including the absorption spectrum, the refractive index, the third-order nonlinear optical coefficients, the extent of absorption saturation, and the recovery of absorption saturation. The transmittance of the film was increased by 30% due to absorption saturation at a pump energy of several hundreds fJ/µm2/pulse. The half decay time constant of absorption saturation was found to be approximately 100 fs for off-resonant excitation. Two-dimensional demultiplexing was demonstrated using the squarylium film as a switching material. From a train of 8 optical pulses with 100 fs duration and 1 ps interval corresponding to a bit rate of 1 Tbps, 24 spatially resolved spots were obained.

Recent activities on ultrafast photonic device technology development in the Femtosecond Technology Project sponsored by NEDO are introduced. Topics include management and control of the higher order dispersions of optical fibers, ultrafast mode-locked semiconductor laser, symmetric Mach-Zehnder type all-optical switch, ultrafast serial-to-parallel signal converter and sub-picosecond wavelength switch. Challenges towards novel ultrafast switching material systems are also described.

We investigate the engineering of the impurity bands in photonic crystals (PCs) for realizing high-efficiency wave guiding, all-optical switching and optical delay for ultrashort optical pulses. It is found that quasi-flat impurity bands suitable for the transmission of ultrashort pulses can be achieved by properly controlling the configuration of coupled cavity waveguides (CCWs). At sharp corners, high bending efficiency is obtained over the entire impurity band. All-optical switching can be realized by creating a dynamical band gap at the center of an impurity band. The concentration of electromagnetic wave at defect regions leads to high switching efficiency while the tunable feature of PC defects makes all-optical control possible. It is also revealed that CCWs with quasi-flat impurity bands provide efficient group delay for ultrashort pulses with negligible attenuation and distortion. From the viewpoint of practical fabrication, the effect of disorder on the transmission property of impurity bands is discussed and the criterion for localization transition is determined.

Although all-optical gate switches based on the intersubband absorption in nitride quantum wells are predicted to operate at 1 Tb/s, realization of strong intersubband absorption at the optical communication wavelength is still difficult. An alternative approach is an interferometer-type gate switch utilizing refractive index change due to the intersubband absorption of a control pulse at a longer wavelength. Feasibility of Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) gate switches, in which 1.55-µm pulses are controlled by 1.85-µm pulses, was theoretically investigated by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulator. Although the effective phase shift does not reach π, 22.5% of the signal pulse energy was predicted to be gated by a 10-pJ control pulse in the MZI switch. Even 1.3-µm pulses can be controlled by 1.85-µm pulses at the expense of the switching energy. This approach provides a way to process signal pulses at the optical communication wavelength utilizing strong intersubband absorption at a longer wavelength.

We demonstrate all-optical clock recovery at 160 Gbit/s by injection locking of a 10 GHz mode-locked laser diode. Effective locking in a range of 10 MHz is observed for average input powers around -10 dBm. The timing jitter is analyzed for data rates between 10 Gbit/s and 160 Gbit/s. Beyond 40 Gbit/s, the high frequency timing jitter of the slave laser becomes of prime importance and has to be taken into account since it degrades the performance of a subsequent receiver. Increasing power penalties are found, especially beyond 80 Gbit/s.

By combining the technology of all-optical saturable absorbers and the diffractive optics, a scheme of all-optical time division demultiplexing module is investigated. Following authors' proposal, design, test fabrication of the optical platform in the previous paper, this paper focuses on the characterization of switching performance. Using a multiple quantum well saturable absorber of InGaAs/InAlAs composition, and gain switched semiconductor laser pulses of 25 ps pulse width, the switching function was demonstrated experimentally at wavelength of 1.55 µm. The switching on-off ratio was compared among 4 lens configuration, 2 lens configuration (2L) and free space, collinear geometry. No degradation was observed in the case of 2 lens configuration in comparison to collinear illumination. Thus the feasibility of all-optical switch module with power efficiency and high speed is predicted, under the assumption of the progress in sub-micron lithography.

This paper reviews the recent progress made by those working on optical filters and switches for photonic networks based on dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). While various kinds of optical devices have been developed for flexible and large-capacity networks, the key components for the WDM networks are narrow-band filters and switches. Three kinds of optical filter are described in this paper: thin-film interference filters, fiber grating filters and arrayed-waveguide-grating (AWG) filters. The optical switches reviewed here are mechanical fiber-type switches, thermo-optic switches made using planar-lightwave-circuit technologies, total-internal-reflection switches and micro-electromechanical-system switches. Each device has its own advantages, and has been or will be used in point-to-point WDM, optical add/drop mupliplexing systems and optical crossconnect systems. Further advances in optical components and technologies are expected to contribute greatly to the construction of future photonic networks.

A photon-induced waveguide (PIG) for all-optical switching and wavelength conversion with the functionalities of regeneration and reshaping is proposed. Optical signals are used to switch between lateral optical wave guiding and antiguiding effects. A transfer-matrix method was developed to consider not only the variation of optical signal power along the waveguide, but also the spatial distributions of refractive index and optical confinement factor to explain the switching scheme between guiding and antiguiding. Theoretical analyses show that a threshold-like and sharp input-output response of PIG allows enhancement of the extinction ratio, reshaping, and thus enlargement of noise margin of optical signals in digital all-optical switching and wavelength conversion.