CdTe:In monocrystal modules for all-optical processing

The aim of this work is to present the application of photoconductive properties of electro-optical n-doped CdTe:In single crystals to all-optical processing of signals at ? = 1550 nm. The mechanism exploits the photogeneration of charge carriers from deep intragap energy levels and their trap-limited drift process under the action of an externally applied cw electric field. An internal space-charge counterfield results that locally shields the electro-optic effect. Different types of free-space architectural elementary modules in CdTe:In have been implemented. A non-coherent wavelength converter, a switching device, a sampler and a time-to-space converter are presented. The nanosecond regime has been reached.