Generation of 40-GHz control signals from flag pulses for switching all-optical gates for use with optical packets.

We demonstrate an all-optical circuit capable of generating 40-GHz control signals from flag pulses that can be used to define the switching state of all-optical gates for use with optical packets. The circuit comprises a Fabry-Perot filter and a semiconductor optical amplifier, and with a single pulse it can generate 12 control pulses with 0.64-dB amplitude modulation. With two and three flag pulses the number of control pulses becomes 36 and 54, respectively.