An InGaAs/InAlAs side-light-injection multiple-quantum-well bistable laser for all-optical switching has been developed. It consists of one main bistable laser and two waveguides perpendicular to the main laser. Saturable absorption and gain quenching are used for set and reset operations. The voltages applied to the gain quenching and saturable absorption regions, which are located at the intersections of the main laser and the waveguide regions, are +1.00 and +0.29 V, respectively. As the input light intensity ( 1.55 µm range) increases, the turn-on and turn-off times decrease. The turn-on time is 200 ps when the input light peak intensity is 1 mW and the turn-off time is 2 ns when the input light peak intensity is 200 mW. The experimental results are supported by numerical simulation. Higher differential gain material is expected to enable faster switching speed.
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