We experimentally show an all-optical wavelength conversion of 8 × 32-GBd single-polarization 16QAM signals using a silicon nano-rib waveguide. The application of reverse biasing of the p-i-n junction of the waveguide allows a conversion efficiency of -8.5 dB with a measured 3-dB optical bandwidth of about 40 nm. Using digital coherent reception, it is shown that the receiver optical signal-to-noise ratio penalty, at a bit-error ratio of 1 × 10, of the wavelength-converted signals over all eight channels was less than 0.6 dB with reference to their respective back-to-back signal channels.

A 1-dB Q-factor improvement through optical phase conjugation in a silicon waveguide with a lateral p-i-n diode enables BER

A polarization-diversity loop with a silicon waveguide with a lateral p-in diode as a nonlinear medium is used to realize polarization insensitive four-wave mixing. Wavelength conversion of seven dual-polarization 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals at 16 GBd is demonstrated with an optical signal-to-noise ratio penalty below 0.7 dB. High-quality converted signals are generated thanks to the low polarization dependence (≤0.5 dB) and the high conversion efficiency (CE) achievable. The strong Kerr nonlinearity in silicon and the decrease of detrimental free-carrier absorption due to the reverse-biased p-in diode are key in ensuring high CE levels.

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