Patent ID: 9036253
Filing Date: 2015-05-19
Classification: G02F,H01S,H04B

Abstract:
1. An optical device, comprising: an optical inverter which comprises: a vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifier (VCSOA) that exhibits an optical gain within a gain spectral range and optical nonlinear bistability; an input optical module to couple, a first input optical signal at a first wavelength within the gain spectral range and a second input optical signal at a second wavelength within the gain spectral range, into the VCSOA to overlap with each other to cause a cross gain modulation on the first and second input optical signals; and an optical output module coupled to the VCSOA to select light at the first wavelength as an output optical signal, wherein: the VCSOA is a reflective VCSOA which receives the first and second input optical signals at a first facet of the VCSOA and internally reflects light back to the first facet to output the output optical signal through the first facet; the first and second input optical signals are in a first optical polarization and a second optical polarization that is orthogonal to the first optical polarization, respectively; and the input optical module comprises (1) a polarization-selective beam splitter that transmits light in one of the first and second optical polarizations and reflects light in the other of the first and second optical polarizations, and (2) a polarization-insensitive beam splitter.