Wavelength conversion using nonlinear polarization rotation in a single semiconductor optical amplifier

Abstract

Abstract-We discuss an all-optical wavelength converter based on nonlinear polarization rotation in a single semiconductor optical amplifier. We show that inverted and noninverted wavelength conversion can be realized. We also demonstrate this wavelengthconversion concept can operate over a large wavelength range. Experiments show that error-free wavelength conversion can be obtained at a bit rate of 10 Gb/s.Index Terms-All-optical wavelength converter, birefringence, nonlinear polarization rotation, semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA).

Architectures and Buffering for All-Optical Packet-Switched Cross-Connects

“…In all-optical routing nodes, the functionality is kept very simple as the signal processing is done in the optical domain, and thus functions such as packet priorities and packet sequence integrity are addressed at edge nodes. Furthermore, the alloptical switching and buffering devices differ from the electro-optical approach in that the control (packet routing) is in the optical domain, the header recognition is all-optical, and signal regeneration results from the implementation of wavelength conversion in the all-optical devices [10].…”

“…The 1 × N switches are implemented in parallel planes, each element handling one packet per timeslot, which means that crosstalk is minimised. The all-optical wavelength converters used in these devices contribute to the regeneration of the signal, thus enhancing the signal quality by improving the extinction ratio as in other interferometric wavelength converters [10,11]. Ref.…”

“…The all-optical solution provides a much higher processing speed, provides transparency, and mitigates the optoelectronic conversion bottleneck. All-optical functions that have been developed include switching [1][2][3] header processing [4,5], buffering methods [6][7][8][9], wavelength conversion [10][11][12] signal regeneration [13], and limited signal processing used for high-speed transmission such as multiplexing and demultiplexing [14][15][16], and for logic functions [17,18].…”

Analysis of bit rate dependence up to 80Gbit/s of a simple wavelength converter based on XPM in a SOA and a shifted filtering

“…However the main disadvantages of this process are the polarity inversion of the output data in comparison to the input signal, the poor output extinction ratio 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 40-100's ps for different SOAs [8]. A solution to overcome these disadvantages is to use cross phase modulation (XPM) in a SOA in conjunction with an interferometer [9][10][11].…”

Experimental investigation of polarisation rotation in semiconductor optical amplifiers

“…Thus far, considerable attention has focused on applications which may emerge from the NPR [6 -9]. Some groups have looked at the underlying physical origins [4,8,9] but a full characterisation of the polarisation change has yet to be performed, to the best of the authors' knowledge. The aim of this paper is to provide a deeper analysis of the nonlinear polarisation rotation in an SOA by applying two different methods, which probe the polarisation dependent gain and birefringence, with and without signal injection.…”