• Chinese Optics Letters
  • Vol. 8, Issue 9, 918 (2010)
Siyuan Yu1、2
Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK
  • 2Visiting State Key Laboratory of ASIC and Department of Communications Engineering, School of Information Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
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    DOI: 10.3788/COL20100809.0918 Cite this Article Set citation alerts
    Siyuan Yu. All-optical functions based on semiconductor ring lasers (Invited Paper)[J]. Chinese Optics Letters, 2010, 8(9): 918 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    Semiconductor ring laser (SRL) has been shown to possess robust bistability between its two possible directions, i.e., clockwise (cw) and counter-clockwise (ccw) lasing, routinely demonstrating directional extinction ratio (DER) of > 25 dB. In this paper, experimental schemes and results using the SRL as a universal photonic digital element to form all-optical logic, memory, and signal processing circuits are summarized. It is demonstrated that the SRL can be used for both combinatorial and sequential logic functions, and as all-optical regeneration devices. Furthermore, it is shown that a SRL logic circuit can be all-optically reconfigured to perform different all-optical logic functions.