All-optical latches based on two-photon absorption in semiconductor optical amplifiers

The design and performance of two optical latches, the set–reset (S-R) latch and D flip-flop have been studied. These latches are the building blocks of large optical processors. The latches are built using two optical logic operations NAND and NOT. Both NAND and NOT operations are realized by using the ultrafast phase response during two-photon absorption process in semiconductor optical amplifiers. Rate equations for semiconductor optical amplifiers, for input data signals with high intensity, configured in the form of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer, have been solved. The input intensities are high enough that the two-photon induced phase change is larger than the regular gain induced phase change. Results show that this scheme can realize the functions of the S-R latch and D flip-flop at high speeds (∼250  Gb/s) with good signal-to-noise ratio.

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