Low dissipative ultrafast all-optical switching in quantum-well semiconductor microcavity

Abstract

Summary form only given. Non-linear semiconductor materials coupled to Fabry-Perot (FP) microcavity are promising devices for the implementation of ultrafast and sensitive two-dimensional optical information processing systems such as optical spatial reconfigurable interconnections, coherent optical gate or optical time demultiplexing. A common means of obtaining fast semiconductor modulators is to modulate the dielectric function by exploiting the presence of free photogenerated earners which have a short lifetime. However, these structures require a relatively high free-carrier density and so the high-bit-rate processing is limited by thermal problems. One way of avoiding such problems would be to use non-dissipative physical effects, which although weak can be enhanced using microcavities. In this communication, we present an ultrafast all-optical modulator, based on the Optical Stark Effect.