All-optical communications and data processing exemplifies an important alternative to overcome the speed and bandwidth limitations imposed by electronics. Specifically, practical implementation of analog operations, including optical temporal differentiation, is fundamental for future ultrafast signal processing and computing networks. In addition, the development of fully integrated systems that allow on-single-chip operations is of significant interest. In this work we report the design, fabrication tolerances and first experimental demonstration of an integrated, ultrafast differentiator based on π-phase-shifted Bragg gratings. By using deeply-sidewall-etched Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) ridged waveguides, first-order optical differentiation has been achieved on sub-millimeters length scales, reaching THz processing speeds. The proposed device has numerous potential applications, including all-optical, analog solving of differential equations (important for virtual modeling of scientific phenomena)¹, data processing and analysis², as well as for the generation of Hermite-Gaussian waveforms (used for arbitrary optical coding and decoding)³.

Date Published: 14 December 2010
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 7746, 17th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 77461Z (14 December 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.881005

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7746:
17th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics
Jarmila Müllerová; Dagmar Senderáková; Stanislav Jurečka, Editor(s)