An interesting discovery leading to all-optical networks was reported last week by Science Daily.
A research team at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) has for the first time incorporated on a single chip both a widely tunable laser and an all-optical wavelength converter, thereby creating an integrated photonic circuit for transcribing data from one color of light to another.
When data is transmitted over the Internet over optical fibers, it is carried by photon streams of different colors. When data arrives to a node, it often needs to change color for the next segment. Until now, this step implied converting photons to electrons, switching electronically, and converting electrons back to photons.
With this new device, this step is eliminated. Here is a rendering of the device showing both a widely tunable laser and an all-optical wavelength converter on a single chip. (Credit: UCSB College of Engineering)
Their research paper, "Demonstration of Monolithically-Integrated InP Widely-Tunable Laser and SOA-MZI Wavelength Converter," was presented at the 15th International Conference on Indium Phosphide and Related Materials (IPRM '03), in Santa Barbara. You can find it in PDF format (612KB, 3 pages).
The paper states, "The monolithic integration of tunable lasers and all-optical wavelength converters is a critical step towards realizing truly optical switches and networks. These structures allow data to be imprinted from an input wavelength to a tunable output wavelength without passing the signal through electronics."
Source: University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), via ScienceDaily, July 29, 2003
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