Ultrafast all-optical switching in AlGaAs photonic crystal waveguide interferometers

Ultrafast all-optical switching in AlGaAs photonic crystal waveguide interferometers

We have demonstrated ultrafast all-optical switching with photonic crystals integrated into AlGaAs Mach-Zehnder interferometers. The nonlinearity is induced by optical excitation of carriers into one arm of the interferometer, and switching times as short as 3 ps are achieved by surface recombinatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters Vol. 95; no. 14; pp. 141108 - 141108-3
Main Authors: Szymanski, D. M., Jones, B. D., Skolnick, M. S., Fox, A. M., O'Brien, D., Krauss, T. F., Roberts, J. S.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: American Institute of Physics 05-10-2009
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We have demonstrated ultrafast all-optical switching with photonic crystals integrated into AlGaAs Mach-Zehnder interferometers. The nonlinearity is induced by optical excitation of carriers into one arm of the interferometer, and switching times as short as 3 ps are achieved by surface recombination at the air holes in the photonic crystal. The fast recombination times and high nonlinearities of the AlGaAs material make this design suitable for high speed all-optical switching applications.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.3236542