Abstract
In recent days, the demand for high speed photonic communication networks was much larger little by little. A key building block in many areas of optical signal processing is just the all-optical XOR logic gate. For the fiber-based reconfigurable high-speed optical network, an all-fiber solution for the XOR gate is highly desirable with the added advantages of (i) no need for OE/EO conversion, (ii) ultrafast nonlinear response time (~2-4 fs) of Kerr effect in the fiber, and (iii) excellent fiber compatibility. These advantages make highly nonlinear fiber devices to be attracting considerable attention in the aspects of many researches. In this thesis, we try to simulate to achieve all-optical XOR logic function by using polarization rotation in a single HNLF at 10 Gb/s and 20 Gb/s. Thus, we accomplished signal-processing in all-optical domain. Besides, we also try to tune some parameters, for example, the selections of the input power and wavelength of lasers and the length and fiber loss of the highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF), to investigate the influence on the performance of the all-optical XOR logic gate. The results of this research will reveal the fact that these parameters indeed play an important role in the performance of all-optical XOR logic gate by using polarization rotation in a single HNLF. As a result, we will understand how to use these appropriate parameters of all-optical XOR logic gate in order to get the better performance of it based on the concept of using a highly nonlinear fiber. These investigations and demonstrations will be useful expectedly in the field of high speed photonic communication networks for the next generation.