Ultrafast optical packet switching using low optical pulse energies in a self-synchronization scheme

A detailed numerical treatment is undertaken to investigate the operating characteristics of a self-synchronization scheme based on a modified Terahertz Optical Asymmetric Demultiplexer (TOAD) device for ultrafast packet switching. The simulations agree with published experimental measurements. It is shown that input picosecond optical pulse energies as low as ∼100 fJ can be utilized to achieve a larger than 10 dB contrast ratio of the first to the remaining pulses of a transmitted signal packet. The utilization of low input pulse energies in the scheme also provides significant advantages including insensitivity of contrast ratio to pulse energies and pulse widths as well as distortionless extracted pulse shapes. Means for achieving a maximum contrast ratio are identified.