Abstract
We demonstrate all-optical fibre switches, including soliton-dragging logic gates, soliton-interaction gates and soliton-trapping AND-gates, that have the potential of operating up to speeds of 0.2 Tbps. Solitons in fibres are attractive for ultrafast timedomain switching because they avoid pulse distortion during propagation and because they exhibit particle-like properties. Soliton-dragging logic gates satisfy all requirements for a digital optical processor and having switching energies approaching 1 pJ. In addition, soliton-dragging logic gates are one example of a more general timedomain chirp switch architecture in which a dispersive delay line acts as a ‘lever-arm’ to reduce the switching energy. Soliton-interaction gates are based on elastic collisions between solitons and illustrate that solitons can be used to implement conservative, billiard-ball logic operations. Soliton-trapping AND-gates are sensitive to the timing of the input pulses and display on/off contrast ratios greater than 20∶1. The soliton-trapping AND-gate can serve as the final stage in an all-optical system and as the interface to electronics. These ultrafast gates may prove advantageous in applications where the switch bandwidth limits the performance of the system
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. N. Islam, E. R. Sunderman, R. H. Stolen, W. Pleibel andJ. R. Simpson,Opt. Lett. 14 (1989) 811;K. J. Blow, N. J. Doran andB. K. Nayer,Opt. Lett. 14 (1989) 754.
P. W. Smith,Bell System Tech. J. 61 (1982) 1975.
D. A. B. Miller, ‘Device requirements for digital optical processing’.Digital Optical Computing, edited by R. A. Athale (SPIE Critical Reviews of Optical Science and Technology, CR35, 1990) p. 68.
R. W. Keyes,Rev. Mod. Phys. 61 (1989) 279.
M. N. Islam,Ultrafast Fiber Switching Devices and Systems, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992).
C. R. Menyuk,Opt. Lett. 12 (1987) 614; J. Opt. Soc. Am.B 5 (1988) 392.
N. J. Doran andD. Wood,J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 4 (1987) 1843; Opt. Lett.13 (1988) 56.
J. R. Sauer, M. N. Islam andS. P. Dijaili,J. Lightwave Tech. in press.
M. N. Islam, C. E. Soccolich andD. A. B. Miller,Opt. Lett. 15 (1990) 909.
J. P. Gordon,Opt. Lett. 11 (1986). 662.
M. N. Islam, L. F. Mollenauer, R. H. Stolen, J. R. Simpson andH. T. Shang,Opt. Lett. 12 (1987) 625.
M. N. Islam, C. R. Menyuk, C.-J. Chen andC. E. Soccolich,Opt. Lett. 16 (1991) 214.
M. N. Islam, E. R. Sunderman, C. E. Soccolich, I. Bar-Joseph, N. Sauer, T. Y. Chang andB. I. Miller,IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 25 (1989) 2454.
M. N. Islam, C.-J. Chen C. E. Soccolich,Opt. Lett. 16 593 (1991).
M. N. Islam, C. E. Soccolich, C.-J. Chen, K. S. Kim, J. R. Simpson andU. C. Paek,Electron. Lett. 27 (1991) 130.
E. Fredkin andT. Toffoli,Int. J. Theor. Phys. 21 (1982) 219.
M. N. Islam andC. E. Soccolich,Opt. Lett. 16 (1991) 1490.
J. P. Gordon,Opt. Lett. 8 (1983) 596.
M. N. Islam, C. D. Poole andJ. P. Gordon,Opt. Lett. 14 (1989) 1011.
V. E. Zahkarov andA. B. Shabat,Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 61 (1971) 118;Sov. Phys. JETP 34 (1972) 62.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Islam, M.N., Soccolich, C.E. & Gordon, J.P. Ultrafast digital soliton logic gates. Opt Quant Electron 24, S1215–S1235 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00624671
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00624671