Patent ID: 7679818

Claim:
A method of optical switching, comprising: optically connecting a loss element with a gain element doped with at least one species of a rare earth ion via a coupling element configured to receive an input from an optical pump; passing an input optical signal through the loss element, the coupling element and the gain element in that order, the loss element generating an attenuated optical signal by attenuating the input optical signal by a predetermined optical signal loss; and selectively applying the optical pump to the gain element via the coupling element to perform the optical switching, the gain element amplifying the attenuated optical signal by a predetermined optical signal gain of about equal magnitude to the predetermined optical signal loss in response to the optical pump such that when the gain element is in an ON state an amplified optical output signal has about the same intensity as the input optical signal and further attenuating the attenuated optical signal in the gain element when the gain element is in an OFF state such that the output of the gain element is negligible in intensity, the signal power of the optical signal in the coupling element being less than a signal power of the input optical signal.