We theoretically investigate the properties of absorption switches for metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) plasmonic waveguides. We show that a MDM waveguide directly coupled to a cavity filled with an active material with tunable absorption coefficient can act as an absorption switch, in which the on/off states correspond to the absence/presence of optical pumping. We also show that a MDM plasmonic w...

We solve the coupled mode equations governing the chalcogenide nonlinear fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) numerically, and obtain the bistability characteristics. The characteristics of the chalcogenide nonlinear FBGs such as: switching threshold intensity, bistability interval and on-off switching ratio are studied. The effects of FBG length and its third order nonlinear refractive index on FBG cha...

Fighting packet loss in optical packet-switched networks has been a priority in the optical research community in recent years. In this short paper, we present a scheme which utilizes both forward error correction at the ingress node and in-network coding at intermediary optical packet switches to reduce packet loss due to contention at the network layer. Initial analysis shows that if used in ...

Quantum switch is a primitive element in quantum network communication. In contrast to previous switch schemes on one degree of freedom (DOF) of quantum systems, we consider controlled switches of photon system with two DOFs. These controlled photon switches are constructed by exploring the optical selection rules derived from the quantum-dot spins in one-sided optical microcavities. Several do...

With increasing interest and required features in dynamically reconfigurable network architectures [1], compact non-mechanical optical signal processors are in great demand to develop reliable, fast-reconfiguring, energy/space-efficient network elements such as dynamic add/drop multiplexers, dynamic optical routers and all-optical cross connects with signal regulation functionality. Liquid crys...

Our prototype of a fully-functional Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch validates the design of a 128 Gb/s optoelectronic ATM switch. Optoelectronics, rather than all optical componets, are used to simutaneously address all of the speci c requirements mandated by the ATM protocol. In this paper, we present the Illinois Pulsar-based Optical Interconnect (iPOINT) testbed, and present our resu...

We demonstrate experimentally an all-optical switching operation using the Kerr effect in a silica toroid microcavity. Thanks to the small mode volume and high quality factor of the silica toroid microcavity, we achieved on-chip optical Kerr switching with an input power of 2 mW. This value is the smallest among all previously reported on-chip optical Kerr switches. We also show that this value...

Here we extend the reach of Fano resonant coupling by combining this concept with cloaking and plasmonic resonances in a single nonlinear nanoparticle, in order to realize giant all-optical scattering nanoswitches controlled by moderate pumping intensities. We show that a core-shell nonlinear plasmonic particle may be designed to abruptly switch from being completely cloaked to being strongly r...