Highly nonlinear Ge-As-Se and Ge-As-S-Se glasses for all-optical switching

We have synthesized Ge-As-Se and Ge-As-S-Se chalcogenide glasses designed to have large optical nonlinearities. Measurements reveal that these glasses offer optical Kerr nonlinearities greater than 500 times that of fused silica and figures of merit for all-optical switching >5 at 1.25 and 1.55 μm.