Open AccessAll‐optical flip‐flop contrast enhancement based on bistable polarisation rotation within Fabry–Perót SOA
Author(s) -
Ippolito C.E.,
Paranjpe T.,
Permeneva D.,
Maywar D.N.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
electronics letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.375
H-Index - 146
ISSN - 1350-911X
DOI - 10.1049/el.2014.3002
Subject(s) - flip flop , bistability , fabry–pérot interferometer , optics , rotation (mathematics) , optical bistability , physics , contrast (vision) , materials science , optoelectronics , computer science , nonlinear optics , artificial intelligence , laser , cmos , wavelength
Switching‐contrast enhancement of over 28 dB for all‐optical flip‐flop (AOFF) operation of a Fabry–Perót semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is experimentally demonstrated. Although the two stable flip‐flop states of such a device are typically distinguished by their optical power, it is demonstrated that each stable state can also exhibit a unique state of polarisation (SOP). This bistable polarisation rotation (BPR) is leveraged to achieve extreme contrast enhancement by aligning the AOFF reset‐state SOP to the blocking axis of a linear polariser, producing a contrast of 36.6 dB. This contrast‐enhancement technique is applicable to other AOFFs based on resonant‐type SOAs (RT‐SOAs) and Kerr‐nonlinear media, substantially improving their applicability to advanced photonic‐switching applications.