Abstract: Disclosed is a high speed optical signal processor which includes a saturable absorber area including a substrate, an active layer, a clad layer and a first upper electrode which are sequentially formed on one face of the substrate, and a first lower electrode formed on the other face of the substrate; and a gain-clamped optical amplifier area including a substrate having a diffraction grating for generating a laser beam, an active layer, a clad layer and a second upper electrode which are sequentially formed on one face of the substrate, and a second lower electrode formed on the other face of the substrate, the second upper electrode being isolated from the first upper electrode of the saturable absorber area.

Abstract: The present invention relates to all-optical OR and XOR logic elements employing saturable absorbers as optical gates. Saturable absorbers are arranged in paths of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, respectively. If the total power of an input optical signal and a continuous wave signal is higher than a transparent input power of the saturable absorbers, the input optical signal passes through the saturable absorbers, and then the optical signals through the two paths are combined, so that it is possible to obtain the operational characteristics of the OR and XOR logic elements.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an optical signal processing element capable of performing various functions of equalization of output power, wavelength converting, reshaping or reamplifying an input optical signal using an optical amplifier in which saturable absorbers are integrated, the saturable absorbers being used as an optical gate to improve the extinction ratio of the input optical signal. The saturable absorber and the optical amplifier are connected in series, and a transparent output optical power outputted from the saturable absorber is not less than a saturation input optical power of the optical amplifier.