A TERAHERTZ OPTICAL ASYMMETRIC DEMULTIPLEXER (TOAD)

We present a new device capable of demultiplexing Tb/s pulse trains. It requires less than one picojoule of switching energy and can be integrated on a chip. The device consists of an optical nonlinear element asymmetrically placed in a short fiber loop. Its switching time is determined by the off-center position of the nonlinear element within the loop, and therefore it can use the strong, slow optical nonlinearities found in semiconductors, which all other fast demultiplexers seek to avoid. We demonstrate the switch's operation at 50 Gb/s using 600 fJ control pulses.