Highly nonlinear As-S-Se glasses for all-optical switching

We have synthesized a series of chalcogenide glasses from the As-S-Se system that is designed to have strong nonlinearities. Measurements reveal that many of these glasses offer optical Kerr nonlinearities greater than 400 times that of fused silica at 1.25 and 1.55 mum and figures of merit for all-optical switching greater than 5 at 1.55 mum. (C) 2002 Optical Society of America.