All-optical flip-flop based on vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers

We report the operation of an all-optical set-reset (SR) flip-flop based on vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers (VCSOAs). This flip-flop is cascadable, has low optical switching power (~10 microW), and has the potential to be integrated on a small footprint (~100 microm(2)). The flip-fl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOptics letters Vol. 32; no. 20; p. 2969
Main Authors Song, Deqiang, Gauss, Veronica, Zhang, Haijiang, Gross, Matthias, Wen, Pengyue, Esener, Sadik
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 15.10.2007
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Summary:We report the operation of an all-optical set-reset (SR) flip-flop based on vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers (VCSOAs). This flip-flop is cascadable, has low optical switching power (~10 microW), and has the potential to be integrated on a small footprint (~100 microm(2)). The flip-flop is composed of two cross-coupled electrically pumped VCSOA inverters and uses the principles of cross-gain modulation, polarization gain anisotropy, and highly nonlinear gain characteristics to achieve flip-flop functionality. We believe that, when integrated on chip, this type of all-optical flip-flop opens new prospects for implementing all-optical fast memories and timing regeneration circuits.
ISSN:0146-9592
DOI:10.1364/OL.32.002969