42.6 Gbit/s fully integrated all-optical XOR gate

Abstract

An SOA-based all-optical high-speed Mach-Zehnder interferometer exclusive-OR (XOR) gate fabricated in a silica III–V hybrid-integration technology platform is demonstrated. The device includes integrated time delays for rapid differential operation as well as integrated phase shifters for fine tuning of power splitters and interferometer bias enabling highly optimised XOR gate operation. XOR functionality is verified through inspection of the output pulse sequence and the carrier-suppressed output spectrum. A 2.3 dB penalty for a 42.6 Gbit/s RZ-OOK signal at a 10−9 bit error rate is observed.