Coupled Mach–Zehnder interferometer memory element

Abstract

Two active Mach-Zehnder interferometers are integrated in a monolithic InP/InGaAsP photonic integrated circuit. Together they form a crucial component for optical signal processing: an optical memory element or set-reset flip-flop. The switching time for this initial device is approximately 200 ps. The photonic integrated circuit contains active and passive optical components, including electro-optic phase shifters.

Machzehnder Interferometer and it’s Applications

“…Improvement in all optical switching performance and high-speed capability of the MZI switches are investigated in [21,22] respectively. Integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) incorporating semiconductor optical amplifiers SOAs in the interferometer arms have recently been developed as very high-speed all-optical switching devices [23].Various SOA based switching configurations have been demonstrated, such as terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexers (TOADs) [24],ultrafast nonlinear interferometers(UNIs) [25] and Mach Zehnder Interferometers [26][27][28], out of which MZI switches are most efficient. An MZI with two SOAs in two branches(see Fig.8) can also demultiplex an OTDM signal at high speeds and can be fabricated in the form of an integrated compact chip using InGaAsP/InP technology [26,31].MZI switches have demonstrated single-channel OTDMs at up to 168Gb/s and might even be used for higher data rates [29][30].…”

Circuit designs of ultra-fast all-optical modified signed-digit adders using semiconductor optical amplifier and Mach–Zehnder interferometer

“…Nowadays, ultra-fast and all-optical processors are becoming very demanding in the high-capacity core networks to avoid optoelectronics conversions. To accommodate high data rates, one needs to avoid or eliminate the need to convert the optical signals to electronics signals and back to optical signals [21][22][23][24][25]. Recently, the development of different ultra-fast and all-optical switches has received considerable interest allover the world for future optical computing and optical information processing [21][22][23][24][25].…”

Mach–Zehnder interferometer-based tree architecture for all-optical logic and arithmetic operations

“…Various SOA-based switching configurations have been demonstrated, such as terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexers (TOADs) [17], ultra-fast nonlinear interferometers (UNIs) [18] and Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) [15,[19][20]. Among different topologies, monolithically integrated MZI switches represent the most promising solution due to their compact size, thermal stability and low power (few fJ for input signal and few hundred fJ for control pulse) operation.…”