ULTRA HIGH-SPEED PARALLEL DEMULTIPLEXER

An optical demultiplexer capable of demultiplexing parallel arrays of data channels at ultra-high sppeds is proposed. The idea is a parallel realization of a previouslyproposed device, known as the TOAD, which has been demonstrated in fiber form for only a single channel. The parallel realization proposed here is based on free space optics, and uses the multiple-quantum-well devices as saturable absorbers. Signals residing in time windows as short as several picoseconds can be extracted from each of the parallel beams propagating through the systm. Different time windows can be extracted from different beams. The system is realized by means of a free-space Sagnac interferometer, with a saturable absorber array offset asymmetrically in the interferometer. A typical system might include 100 independent channels.