Optical pattern recognition by use of a segmented semiconductor optical amplifier

A technique for high-speed, all-optical pattern recognition based on cross correlation in a segmented semiconductor optical amplifier (SSOA) is presen ted. A counterpropagating pump-probe setup is used to perform cross correla tion of the spatial gain-loss pattern in the SSOA with the optical data pat tern (pump), and the result is readout with a counterpropagating probe. Cro ss correlation of 4-bit patterns at 85 Gbits/s experimentally demonstrated, Simulations show reasonable agreement with experimental measurements and a re used to address scalability to higher bit rates and longer data patterns . (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.