EIT BASED OPTICAL SWITCH/WAVELENGTH CONVERTER

摘要

A wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical communication system (100) includes a wavelength converter/switch based on EIT (electromagnetically induced transparency), refers to the elimination of resonant absorption on an otherwise optically allowed transition by the application of a coherent coupling light field. In one embodiment, the EIT converter provides a 1x1 converter (200) for converting a data stream from a first wavelength to a second wavelength. A constant wave probe field and a coherent coupling field, which has a state corresponding to data stream, are applied to the EIT medium. The converter can convert the data stream from a wavelength corresponding to the coupling field to the wavelength of the probe field. In a further embodiment, additional pairs of probe and coupling fields are applied to the EIT medium to provide an NxN converter (300).