Devices for terabit optical networks, an overview and trends

Clock and data signals are separated from a 100 Gb/s self-clocked orthogonal time division multiplexing (OTDM) system using an ultrafast all-optical intensity-dependent switch. The recovered clock signal is 5 times larger than the input clock signal. This recovered clock signal has sufficient intensity to control a terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexer (TOAD). The recovered clock can be used without additional amplification as the control signal, and the reflected signal as the data input to a TOAD. The processing is preformed at a relatively low energy of less than 200 fJ for both the clock extraction and demultiplexing. This all-optical scheme may be useful for emerging ultrafast OTDM networks.