2015 Volume E98.C Issue 12 Pages 1143-1149
In all-optical switches using the cascade of second harmonic generation and difference frequency mixing in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide devices, walk-off between the fundamental and second harmonic pulses causes crosstalk between neighboring symbols, and limits the switching performance. In this paper, we numerically study retiming characteristics of all-optical switches that employ the PPLN waveguide devices with consideration for the effects of the crosstalk and for the input timing of the data and clock pulses. We find that the time offset between the data and clock pulses can control the timing jitter of the switched output; an appropriate offset can reduce the jitter while improving the switching efficiency.