Semiconductor laser amplifiers for ultrafast all-optical signal processing

Recent progress in the use of semiconductor laser amplifiers (SLA's) for high-speed all-optical switching is reviewed. We show that, despite SLA's having lifetimes of greater than or equal to 100 ps, they are, to date, the most promising material system for all-optical ultrafast signal processing. permits switching rates faster than the recovery time. switching rates of as much as similar to 100 GHz should be possible. based switches were incorporated into novel all-optical architectures. We highlight the role of SLA carrier dynamics, which Experimental results are presented that imply that Recent experiments are described in which SLA-based switches were incorporated into novel all-optical architectures. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.