We discuss the performance of slow-light enhanced optical switches and modulators fabricated in silicon. The switch is based on photonic crystal waveguides in a directional coupler geometry, and the dispersion of the device is engineered to allow a switching length as short as 5 μm and rerouting of optical signals within 3 ps. The 3 ps switching time is demonstrated using free carriers in the s...

We experimentally demonstrate that the spectral sensitivity of a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer can be enhanced through structural slow light. We observe a 20-fold resolution enhancement by placing a dispersion-engineered, slow-light, photonic-crystal waveguide in one arm of a fiber-based MZ interferometer. The spectral sensitivity of the interferometer increases roughly linearly with the gro...

The predicted growth of broadband services, has led to extensive research for high capacity systems and networks. Current efforts are concentrated on the investigation of optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM) techniques combined with wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) in order to fully utilize the potential of the installed fibers. All-optical switches, which can route a signal spatiall...

We investigate an all-optical switch that is operated by the nonlinear phase-shift introduced by optical pulses with duration of 200 fs in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOAs). The gate is made out of a commercially available InGaAsP–InGaAs multi-quantum-well (MQW) SOA placed in a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. We have measured the nonlinear phase-shift as a function of the injection current ...

We propose and analyse a GaAs-based optical switch having a ring resonator configuration which can switch optical telecommunication signals over the 1300 nm and 1500 nm bands, using bias assisted carrier injection as the switching mechanism. The switching is achieved through variation in the refractive index of the ring resonator produced by changing the injected carrier density through the app...

Utilizing the small bending radius of high index contrast optical waveguides, ultra-compact optical devices such as waveguide branch, Mach-Zehnder interferometer, arrayed waveguide grating filter, microring resonator filter, and so on can be realized. We have proposed and demonstrated a vertically coupled microring resonator as an Add/Drop filter, and recently realized a hitless wavelength chan...

We propose an electronic quantum eraser in which electrons are injected into a mesoscopic conductor in the quantum Hall regime. The conductor is composed of a two-path interferometer, an electronic analog of the optical Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and a quantum point contact detector capacitively coupled to the interferometer. While the interference of the output current at the interferometer ...

Abstract As the key element for optical systems, polarization controllers with versatile functionalities are highly desired. Here, a CMOS-compatible switch is proposed and realized by using Mach–Zehnder interferometer integrated two polarization-dependent mode converters (PDMCs) at input/output ends. The PDMCs, which utilize hybridness adiabatic evolution in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) ridge wav...