High-speed all-optical telecommunication switches, multiplexers, demultiplexers and wavelength converters are key devices in the forthcoming information society of the 21st century.

• This book demonstrates advanced concepts for building integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer all-optical high-speed switches, multiplexers and wavelength converters (see Fig. 1 below). Emphasis is put on the improvement of the on-off ratios and the integration of separation schemes for the data and control signals.
• The book starts with an overview of state-of-the art all-optical techniques and concepts.
• It further discusses relevant nonlinear effects within 1.55 mm InGaAsP/InP semiconductor optical amplifiers and
• Contains empirical functions describing important material parameters like the material gain, refractive-index change and alpha factor as derived from experiments. (To the best of our knowledge the most complete and exact characterization of 1.55 mm InGaAsP/InP materials)
• Overview of  multimode interference (MMI) theory and introduction of new MMI couplers with attractive applications in all-optical devices.