All-optical signal processing based on optical injection-locked two-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

We have proposed all-optical signal processing using an optically injection-locked two-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The operating principle is based on an all-optical inverter using transverse mode switching of an injection-locked VCSEL. The nonlinear transfer function in input-output characteristics enables us to reshape degraded input signal. In addition, the polarization state of the output signal can be tightly controlled by two-mode optical injection scheme. Thus, the polarization state of an inverted signal can be fixed for randomly polarized input light. In addition, 311 regeneration can be achieved with electrically driven clock signal. The proposed scheme gives us novel functions such as all-optical 311 regeneration with optical re-polarization function and NRZ-RZ format conversion. We carried out the modeling based on a multi-transverse-mode rate equation analysis which includes two orthogonal polarization modes, exhibiting a potential of high-speed 4R regeneration and format conversion at 10 Gbps.