Optical switching based on arsenic-selenide and lead-silicate fibers

The paper reports our progress on soft-glass fibers for optical switching purposes based on four-wave mixing. Specific development of connectorized nonlinear modules for switching application is presented. For the arsenic-selenide fiber we present a novel solid joint technology, with connection losses of only 0.25 dB, which is the lowest value presented up-to-date. We have carried out conversion efficiency simulations, conversion efficiency of -16.1 dB was obtained with arsenic-selenide fiber of length reduced to 5 m. Finally experimental tests are included employing our developed optical switch testbed. Measurement results with a 26 m and a 4.5 m long arsenic-selenide nonlinear modules are presented.