Application of all-optical switching for a high-speed optical memory. Proposed scheme of high-speed demultiplexing

Optical recording and demultiplexing are two essential functions of a high-speed optical memory. The mechanism of the all-optical switching in an external magnetic field and the toggle switching are based on a heating and cooling of magnetic lattices and, as a result, are relatively slow. In contrast, the spin-transfer optical switching does not rely on the heating/ cooling and, therefore, can be fast. We proposed and demonstrated experimentally the spin-transfer demultiplexing at a speed of 2.2 TBit/sec. We discuss possibilities of improving efficiency of the spin-transfer optical switching to fit requirements of the high-speed optical memory.