TWSLA-NOLM: the universal high speed all optical processor

We have demonstrated that not only can travelling wave semiconductor laser amplifer-nonlinear optical loop mirrors (TWSLA-NOLMs) be driven by clock signals to provide remarkable performance as optical demultiplexers, but by taking due care over the carrier density evolution, a true two port optical AND gate may be produced. Given that the output may be carried on either the incoming or the locally generated wavelength, wavelength conversion is easily obtained, and in data driven operation, a regenerative function is also obtained, certainly for data rates of up to 40 Gbit/s