Download All-optical switching apparatus

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
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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]
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Contact Warren Bailey +61(0) 417 221 603 or