Fast all-optical flip-flop based on a single distributed feedback laser diode

Since there is an increasing demand for fast networks and switches, the electronic data processing imposes a severe bottleneck and all-optical processing techniques will be required in the future. All-optical flip-flops are one of the key components because they can act as temporary memory elements. Several designs have already been demonstrated but they are often relatively slow or complex to fabricate. We demonstrate experimentally fast flip-flop operation in a single DFB laser diode which is one of the standard elements in today's telecommunication industry. Injecting continuous wave light in the laser diode, a bistability is obtained due to the spatial hole burning effect. We can switch between the two states by using pulses with energies below 200 fJ resulting in flip-flop operation with switching times below 75 ps and repetition rates of up to 2 GHz. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America

All-optical 2R regeneration using the hysteresis in a distributed feedback laser diode

A broadband optical 2R regenerator based on a single distributed feedback laser is demonstrated for nonreturn to zero signals at a bitrate of 10 Gb/s. A semi-analytical approach for the influence of hysteresis on the transfer function of a 2R regenerator is shown

All-optical flip-flops using electrically pumped microdisk lasers integrated on silicon

We demonstrate flip-flop operation using the directional bistability in ultra-small microdisks (7.5 mu m diameter) heterogeneously bonded on a silicon chip. The pulse energies are only 1.8 fJ and the bias current is 3.5 mA