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Opportunity 2013001 All-optical switching apparatus The existing problem or issue The dynamic control of light plays a central role in many important applications such as quantum information processing and optical networks. In particular, switching and routing optical signals to different destinations plays a central role in optical fibre communications. Currently, most commercial optical switches and routers use micro-electromechanical systems. Therefore, current commercial solutions convert the optical routing and switching signals to and from electrical signals to enable them to control the micro-mechanical components. This limits the speed and increases the size, complexity (and cost) of the resulting optical fibre network. Some methods for all-optical routing of light involve a cavity or an emitter coupled to a waveguide that is only able to switch the transmission of a single photon. For multi-photon signals, common techniques for all-optical routing typically seek to control the resonance frequencies of connected optical cavities to create a large frequency mismatch between the separate cavities, effectively turning off light transfer between them. These latter methods generally require large optical nonlinearities and intense laser fields. Moreover, to route light between multiple possible paths a cascade of switching and absorption stages along the desired and alternate paths are required. As a result, the insertion loss of a traditional multipath, all-optical routing device accumulates very fast as the number of possible paths increases. Our solution We have developed a new type of all-optical router to dynamically and directly control the coupling of light between optical cavities, allowing the routing of light along different paths on-demand. The energy cost is extremely low, the insertion loss is low and the contrast is high. Control of the interaction between alternative optical cavity modes has been achieved using quantum dynamics. More specifically, the scheme is based on optically controlling the quantum state of a coupling element placed in a cavity, where the coupling element comprises a three-level qubit, or coherent scatterer. Such quantum dynamic cavity mode coupling allows rapid, all-optical control of the coupling to and from independent cavity modes which in turn permits optical routing of signals (including single photons if desired) between outputs. Using Page 1 of 2 Opportunity 2013001 architectures similar to that employed in electromechanical switch networks, the full range of input/output waveguide paths can be obtained with nearly perfect switching fidelity. Our quantum dynamical optical cavity interaction technique, which has not been reported previously, facilitates the construction of an on-chip, all-optical switch or router. Advantages 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. All-optical. No moving parts or electrical conversion circuits, therefore speed is high. Energy efficient / low energy cost. Low insertion loss. Well suited to photonic chip implementation. Easily scalable for multiple paths and routers. Applications · · Effective, fast and low energy cost routing and switching of optical signals. Provides a method to create multipath coupling of both weak coherent fields and single photons. Inventors · · Prof. Jason Twamley Dr. Ke Yu Xia Intellectual Property position A provisional patent application has been filed in Australia titled “Optical switching apparatus and method using quantum control” Australian Provisional Patent Application Number: 2013901361. Publications Nil Would you like to know more? [email protected] Page 2 of 2 Contact Warren Bailey +61(0) 417 221 603 or