All-optical gate with picosecond response in semiconductor-doped glasses

Their fast response and large nonlinear susceptibility make the semiconductor-doped glasses (SDGs) promising candidates for use in all-optical signal processing devices. These materials are commercially available as sharp cutoff optical filters and have also been manufactured in the form of optical fibres and waveguides. In this latter the authors demonstrate, for the first time to their knowledge, the use of SDG as an optical Kerr shutter ( approximately 3 ps) operating at 100 MHz using driving peak powers in the range 4-20 W.