All-optical switching with low-peak power in microfabricated AlGaAs waveguides

Author

Espindola, R.P. ; Udo, M.K. ; Chu, D.Y. ; Wu, S.L. ; Ho, S.T. ; Tiberio, R.C. ; Chapman, P.F. ; Cohen, David

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL, USA

Volume

7

Issue

6

fYear

1995

fDate

6/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

641

Lastpage

643

Abstract

We report all-optical switching with low-peak power in a microfabricated AlGaAs waveguide operating at 1.6 μm. We show that by using a 1-μm long microfabricated strongly-guided waveguide with 0.8 μm by 0.9 μm mode cross-sectional area, switching is achieved with an average power of 1.2 mW for 82-MHz mode-locked 430 fs pulses. The estimated peak pump power and pulse energy inside the microfabricated waveguide were /spl sim/30 W and /spl sim/14.6 pJ, respectively, which is 5-10 times lower than the values needed with conventional waveguides. In terms of a practicality index defined via switching power times waveguide length, this waveguide has around the best value.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; high-speed optical techniques; optical fabrication; optical switches; optical waveguides; rib waveguides; 0.8 mum; 0.9 mum; 1 cm; 1.2 mW; 1.6 mum; 14.6 pJ; 30 W; 430 fs; 82 MHz; AlGaAs; AlGaAs waveguides; all-optical switching; average power; cross-sectional area; low-peak power; microfabricated strongly-guided waveguide; microfabricated waveguides; peak pump power; practicality index; pulse energy; switching power; waveguide length; Fiber nonlinear optics; Nanofabrication; Nonlinear optical devices; Nonlinear optics; Optical interferometry; Optical pumping; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Optical waveguides; Ultrafast optics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.388750

Filename

388750