1.55microns optical logic etalon with Pico-Joule switching energy made of InGaAs/Inp multiple quantum wells.

We have constructed all-optical logic etalons operating in the 1.55microns wavelength region using InGaAs/InP multiple- quantum-well (MQW) structures. These etalons have low energy requirements with several nsec recovery times, exhibit high on/off contrast (>20:1 if desired) with large on-state transmission (>40%), and have signal gain, thus make them possible to cascade. For example, we have performed gating using 6-pJ input energy with 5:1 contrast and gain about 2 at 100 MHz operating frequency. The nonlinear coefficients for the InGaAs/InP MQW deduced from experimental results are found to be on the same order of those for GaAs quantum wells.