Experimental demonstration of all-optical SOA-assisted Sagnac recirculating shift register with an inverter and SOA feedback

• Published in: Optik (Stuttgart) Vol. 114; no. 7; pp. 322 - 328
• Main Authors: Houbavlis, T., Zoiros, K.E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Jena Elsevier GmbH 2003; Elsevier
• Subjects: All-optical recirculating shift register; all-optical signal processing; all-optical switching; Applied sciences; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Nonlinear optics; Optical bistability, multistability and switching, including local field effects; Optical bistability, multistability, and switching; Optics; Physics; semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA); SOA-assisted Sagnac switch; Systems, networks and services of telecommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Transmission and modulation (techniques and equipments); All-optical recirculating shift register; all-optical switching; all-optical signal processing; SOA-assisted Sagnac switch; semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA); Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Inverter; Signal processing; Sagnac interferometer; Optical switching; Optical memory
• ISSN: 0030-4026; 1618-1336
• DOI: 10.1078/0030-4026-00269

We report the operation of an all-optical recirculating shift register with an inverter at 10 Gb/s using a Sagnac interferometer with a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as the nonlinear switching element and a second SOA to provide feedback. Binary pulse patterns were stored in the memory circuit recirculating stably for periods of several hours. The demonstration of this simple optical loop memory proves also the cascadability of the SOA-assisted Sagnac switch.