All-optical switching in a hybrid Mach–Zehnder interferometer as a result of cascaded second-order nonlinearity

Abstract

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, all-optical switching with a contrast ratio of 7:1 based on the cascaded second-order nonlinearity. We performed the switching experiments in a nonlinear hybrid Mach–Zehnder interferometer, using a nonuniformly temperature-tuned lithium niobate channel waveguide in an operating regime of small fundamental depletion.