Optical-intensity dependent switching using soliton self-frequency shift

The soliton self-frequency shift is used to obtain ultrafast all-optical intensity dependent switching. A 10.6 km long telecommunications fibre, a diffraction grating and two detectors are set up in such a way that the power dependence of the soliton self-frequency shift results in nonlinear transfer characteristics. One of the detectors detects 55% of the energy emerging from the fibre at high launched powers and none at low launched powers.