Novel all-optical 10 Gbp/s RZ-to-NRZ conversion using SOA-loop-mirror

The authors propose and demonstrate a novel all-optical return-to-zero (RZ) to non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data format conversion using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) loop mirror. Error free transmission up to 78 km for the NRZ format converted data at 10 Gb/s is achieved. Also, the proposed method shows better transmission performance than the conventional Mach-Zehnder modulation method.