Optical Square-Wave Clock Generation Based on an All-Optical Flip-Flop

We demonstrate optical square-wave clock generation based on an all-optical flip-flop. The bistable output power from a resonant-type semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is switched on and off by modulating its input with its output via cross-gain modulation in a traveling-wave SOA. All active components are driven by dc currents, and the wavelength and clock frequency are selectable. A clock frequency of 3.5 MHz is demonstrated, limited by the time of flight between bulk optical components. Optical square-wave clock signals are promising for applications in photonic integrated circuits and all-optical signal processing.