All-optical broadband photonic switching device using an ytterbium-doped fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Summary form only given. Cross-connect switching devices are essential elements in realizing dynamic route selection in future all-optical communications networks. To be attractive, this type of device needs to be modulation and wavelength transparent (i.e., totally optical transparent), and have low signal loss, low optical switching power and high reliability. The all fiber Mach Zehnder interferometer device reported here possesses all these features and works on the principle of phase shifts in ytterbium-doped fiber far from the 980-nm resonance, caused by changes in the absorption of strong bands in the VUV.