Patent ID: 7362928

Claim:
An optical switch comprising: a splitting device having first, second, third, and fourth terminals; a nonlinear element; an attenuator; and an optical loop associated with said third and fourth terminals, said optical loop including said attenuator and said nonlinear element, said nonlinear element being displaced from a mid-point of said optical loop, wherein said splitting device is able to receive an input signal via one of said first and second terminals and an activating signal via one of said first and second terminals, to split said input signal into optical components counter-propagating in said optical loop, and to provide an output signal at either said first terminal or said second terminal in response to said activating signal, wherein at least one of said first and second terminals includes a coupling device for coupling said activating signal from an activating terminal into said one of said first and second terminals, and wherein said nonlinear element is arranged in a position that does not lie on a collision point of the optical components of said input signal counter propagating in said optical loop.