All-optical switching device for high performance computing

Currently there is significant fundamental and practical interest in all-optical devices. For very high data rates, electro-optic or thermo-optic switching has speed limitations. Therefore all-optical switching is of considerable interest for ultrahigh data-rate computing. All-optical switching involves an intensity-dependent process. One useful configuration for optical switches is the nonlinear directional coupler. Optical switching in this device has been demonstrated for pulse widths in the picosecond region. However, these devices are relatively long which limits their practical application. By using femtosecond duration optical pulses we show that novel soliton-like coupled pulses can be used to perform all-optical switching in short nonlinear directional couplers. Because of the compact size (similar to 1mm) and the high bit rate, a major application for these ah-optical devices may be in high performance computing.