A NOVEL ALL-OPTICAL SWITCH - THE WAVELENGTH RECOGNIZING SWITCH

A new class of an all-optical switch-the wavelength recognizing switch is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The device uses a contro l signal to sense the wavelength of the input packet and taps a portio n of the data packet to the appropriate output port. The device is bas ed on noncollinear four-wave mixing in a broad-area traveling-wave sem iconductor optical amplifier. Measured switching efficiency is +8.2 dB with -28.8 dB of crosstalk. The recognition bandwidth is as narrow as 0.03 Angstrom and the 3-dB switching bandwidth is 42 nm.