Experimental analysis of switching windows in semiconductor based all-optical switches

Summary form only given.The terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexer (TOAD) and the ultrafast nonlinear interferometer (UNI) are two switches employing semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) that are commonly used today. The UNI has been demonstrated for bitwise logic operations at data rates up to 100 Gb/s. We demonstrate a cross correlation technique that allows direct observation of the switching window of the UNI. We have demonstrated a new technique for observing the switching window in ultrafast all-optical switches. We have demonstrated a switching window of 4.67 ps using an amplifier with a transit time of 11 ps. The fact that the UNI switching window is not limited by the transit time of the amplifier suggests that it may be more suitable than the TOAD for bitwise operations at high data rates.