Optical memories and switching dynamics of counterpropagating light states in microresonators

Abstract

The Kerr nonlinearity can be a key enabler for many digital photonic circuits as it allows access to bistable states needed for all-optical memories and switches. A common technique is to use the Kerr shift to control the resonance frequency of a resonator and use it as a bistable, optically-tunable filter. However, this approach works only in a narrow power and frequency range or requires the use of an auxiliary laser. An alternative approach is to use the asymmetric bistability between counterpropagating light states resulting from the interplay between self- and cross-phase modulation, which allows light to enter a ring resonator in just one direction. Logical HIGH and LOW states can be represented and stored as the direction of circulation of light, and controlled by modulating the input power. Here we study the switching speed, operating laser frequency and power range, and contrast ratio of such a device. We reach a bitrate of 2 Mbps in our proof-of-principle device over an optical frequency range of 1 GHz and an operating power range covering more than one order of magnitude. We also calculate that integrated photonic circuits could exhibit bitrates of the order of Gbps, paving the way for the realization of robust and simple all-optical memories, switches, routers and logic gates that can operate at a single laser frequency with no additional electrical power.

arXiv comment10 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (9)

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• A Kerr Polarization Controller
• Coherent suppression of backscattering in optical microresonators
• Logic Gates based on Interaction of Counterpropagating Light in Microresonators
• Optical bistable SOI micro-ring resonators for memory applications
• Real-time imaging of standing-wave patterns in microresonators
• Generalized Theory of Optical Resonator and Waveguide Modes and their Linear and Kerr Nonlinear Coupling
• Tunable nonlinear coherent perfect absorption and reflection in cavity QED
• Brillouin-based storage of QPSK signals with fully tunable phase retrieval
• Controllable optical bistability with perfect photon absorption