Soliton loop mirror demultiplexer using orthogonally polarized signal and control

For future ultra high speed (/spl ap/100 Gb/s) time division multiplexed (TDM) communications systems, a means of demultiplexing the individual channels is essential. We report demonstration of a loop mirror demultiplexer operating in the soliton regime using polarization multiplexing of the control and signal. A clean, high-contrast, high-efficiency switching window is obtained by optimizing control and signal pulse energy, fiber length, etc. The results are compared with loop mirror demultiplexer operation in the linear regime, and with numerical simulations.