Complete All Optical Switching of Visible Picosecond Pulses in Birefringent Fiber

Switching of visible picosecond pulses with a 50:1 contrast ratio is demonstrated in a time-division interferometry arrangement. The high-contrast switching of the signal is accomplished by uniform crossphase modulation by an orthogonally polarized control pulse, which walks though the signal during propagation in a strongly birefringent 10 meter fiber.