A technique that makes "turn on/turn off" switching times for network semiconductor optical amplifiers 10 times faster has been developed by researchers from the University of Campinas in Brazil.

The group added 150-ps electrical pulses to the typical 250-ps step pulses that control an amplifier's electrical gate. The resulting switching times were as short as 0.2 ns for a device that previously switched at 2 ns with no added pulse. The group reported in the July issue of IEEE Photonics Technology Letters that computer simulations predict times as short as 10 ps for such devices operating under ideal conditions.