Recent advances in developing nonlinear optical techniques for processing serial digital information at high speed are reviewed. The field has been transformed by the advent of semiconductor nonlinear devices capable of operation at 100 gigabits per second and higher, well beyond the current speed limits of commercial electronics. These devices are expected to become important in future high-capacity communications networks by allowing digital regeneration and other processing functions to be performed on data signals "on the fly" in the optical domain.

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A multiwavelength comb is obtained from Er(3+) - and Nd(3+)-doped fiber lasers by incorporation of a section of multimode optical fiber into an otherwise single-mode fiber ring cavity. This combination of fiber types acts as a wavelength-dependent filter in the laser through spatial mode beating between the LP(01) and LP(11) modes in the multimode fiber.