All-Optical Demultiplexing of 640-Gb/s OTDM-DPSK Signal Using a Semiconductor SMZ Switch

The all-optical demultiplexing of a 640-Gb/s single- polarization optical time-division-multiplexing signal is successfully demonstrated by using a symmetric Mach-Zehnder switch incorporating semiconductor optical amplifiers. An ultrafast switching gate as narrow as 1.4 ps is realized by using a low-jitter, subpicosecond pulse train as a control pulse, which facilitates low-penalty demultiplexing.