Abstract
A novel ultrahigh-speed all-optical half subtracter based on four-wave mixing (FWM) in a single semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is proposed. This scheme only requires a single SOA and two input signals without additional light source, so it is quite simple and compact. Due to the polarization-shift-keying (PolSK) modulated signals being used in this scheme, pattern-dependent degradation can be avoided. By numerical simulation, dependence of the critical factors of the logic gate performance, e.g., the output power of logic 1 and extinction ratio (ER), on two input signals power is investigated. In addition, the effect of the gain polarization dependence of SOA is analysed.