Nonlinear Optical Switch in Rare-Earth Doped Fluoride Glass

为了保持和提高美国在高科技领域的竞争力，国家光纤通信网络的发展最近被提议作为我们整体基础设施发展的一个重要目标。光交换无疑将在这个高速网络的许多最先进方面发挥重要作用。在本论文中，Foster-Miller提出了一种基于掺稀土氟光纤谐振增强非线性光开关的光激活开关新方法。与我们的团队合作伙伴，斯坦福大学金兹顿实验室主任理查德·潘泰尔博士和英国电信研究实验室的保罗·弗朗斯博士一起，我们将在第一阶段通过实验证明，氟光纤交换机的性能比以前的实验有了预期的数量级提高。我们预计，利用已知的掺氟光纤的特性，我们将能够降低所需的泵浦功率并减少相互作用长度，从而生产出紧凑、低功耗的全光纤开关。在第二阶段，我们将设计、制造、测试和交付非常高速的全光纤交换机，用于光矩阵应用、光计算和光互连、局域网和电信。＊＊＊

9360816 Nelson The development of a national fiber optic communications network has recently been proposed as an important objective of our overall infrastructure development in order to maintain and improve U.S. competitiveness in high technology. Optical switching will no doubt ply an important role in the functioning of many of the most advanced aspects of this high speed network. In this proposal, Foster-Miller presents a new approach to optically activated switching based on the resonantly-enhanced nonlinear optical switching in rare-earth doped fluoride fibers. Together with our team partners, Dr. Richard Pantell, Director of the Stanford University Ginzton Laboratory and Dr. Paul France of British Telecom Research Laboratories, we will experimentally demonstrate during Phase I an expected order of magnitude improvement in performance of the fluoride fiber based switch over previous experiments. We project that with the known properties of doped fluoride fibers, we will be able to both lower the required pump power and reduce the interaction length to produce a compact and low power all-fiber switch. During Phase II we will design, fabricate, test and deliver very high speed all-fiber switches for use in optical matrix applications, optical computing and optical interconnects, local area networks and telecommunications. ***