All-optical shift register

Abstract

The all-optical shift register is demonstrated in which it is based entirely on semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The shift register is formed by the combination of an SOA in a fibre loop mirror. SOAs are used for the nonlinear element in an interferometer and for the feedback amplifier. The device is to generate sequences of ones and zeros. Compared to the electronic-based systems, optical communication system has more advantages of faster speed and larger capacity. It will have an ability to control the output pattern of all-optical shift register and potential for low latency, high speed and low power optical processing and it will lead to more high speed communication of signal processing.