THE Y-LASER - A MULTIFUNCTIONAL DEVICE FOR OPTICAL COMMUNICATION-SYSTEMS AND SWITCHING-NETWORKS

This paper gives a comprehensive review of the recent progress obtained with various operation modes of a Y-shaped all active waveguide device with three optical input / output ports, the so called Y-laser. Used as a monolithic semiconductor light source, single-mode emission with an extremely large cw tuning range of more than 50 nm is accessed. Single current step tuning spans up to 8-nm range. Several-GHz bandwidth AM and FM response is achieved. Operation as a wavelength processing device is demonstrated with data-stream transformation from short wavelength fiber windows (around 780 nm or 1310 nm) to the long wavelength window (1550 nm), as well as with ultra wide range wavelength conversion within the 1550-nm region, across +/- 20 nm (blue and red shift). Optical high-speed space switching / gating functions are verified up to 1 Gb/s, and packet switching of 5-Gb/s data streams is demonstrated. Further features as a pulse reshaping device, as an electrically triggerable wavelength bistable device and as a mode locked pulse generator are addressed. Possible applications of this multifunctional device in future optical communication systems and switching networks are discussed.