Ultrafast saturable absorber device with heavy-ion irradiated quantum wells for high bit-rate optical regeneration at 1.55 /spl mu/m

Summary form only. All-optical communication technologies require nonlinear optical devices with ultrafast response times, compatible with WDM. Heavy-ion irradiation is an interesting technique for reducing the carrier recombination time in saturable absorbers, because in quantum wells it preserves the excitonic absorption lines up to relatively high irradiation doses and the relaxation time does not saturate at high average carrier generation rates. The device is a reflection-mode vertical-cavity structure based on MBE-grown InGaAs/InAlAs MQW groups. The results show that heavy-ion irradiated quantum wells can provide the basis for efficient compact optical switching devices, operating at optical communication wavelengths. The devices can be made fast enough to extend the bit rate capability beyond 100 GHz.