Integrated nonlinear interferometer with wavelength multicasting functionality.

Nonlinear interference based on four wave mixing (FWM) is extremely attractive due to its phase sensitivity. On the other hand, wavelength multicasting, which supports data point-to-multipoint connections, is a key functionality to increase the network efficiency and simplify the transmitter and receiver in the wavelength-division multiplexing systems. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a nonlinear interferometer with wavelength multicasting functionality based on single-stage FWM in an integrated silicon waveguide. With a three-pump and dual-signal input, four phase sensitive idlers are obtained at the interferometer output. For a proof-of-concept application, we further theoretically demonstrate the multicasting logic exclusive-OR (XOR) gate for both intensity and phase modulated signals. The proposed scheme would be potentially applied in various on-chip applications for future optical communication system.