Ultrafast all-optical NOR gate based on semiconductor optical amplifier and fiber delay interferometer

An ultrafast all-optical logic NOR gate based on a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and a fiber delay interferometer (FDI) is presented. For high-speed input return-to-zero (RZ) signal, nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) switching windows which satisfy Boolean NOR operation can be formed by properly choosing the delay time and the phase shift of FDI. 40Gb/s NOR operation has been demonstrated successfully with low control optical power. The factors that degrade the NOR operation have been discussed.