Feroz AHMED^* and Naoto KISHI¹

Satellite Venture Business Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering, Gunma University, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515, Japan
¹Department of Information and Communication Engineering, The University of Electro-Communications, 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan

(Received March 8, 2002; Accepted March 18, 2003)

We propose a method for all-fiber ultra-fast switching using stimulated Raman scattering. It is based on the transference of energy from the signal as pump to the control signal as first Stokes by stimulated Raman scattering. In the absence of a control signal, the transference of energy from the pump signal to the generated first Stokes is negligible, which results in high output power at the pump signal wavelength. To minimize the walk-off problem between two wavelengths, we chose pump signal and control signal to be equally spaced on opposite sides of the zero dispersion wavelength of the fiber. Based on this assumption, the all-fiber ultra-fast optical switch with low power consumption and high output extinction ratio can be realized.

Key words: ultra-fast optical switch, all-fiber devices, stimulated Raman scattering, highly nonlinear fiber, fiber nonlinearities

^*E-mail address: feroz@vbl.gunma-u.ac.jp