Wavelength conversion for WDM communication systems using four-wave mixing in semiconductor optical amplifiers

Four-wave mixing (FWM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers is an attractive mechanism for wavelength conversion in wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) systems since it provides modulation format and bit rate transparency over wide tuning ranges. A series of systems experiments evaluating several aspects of the performance of these devices at bit rates of 2.5 and 10 Gb/s are presented. Included are single-channel conversion over 18 nm of shift at 10 Gb/s, multichannel conversion, and cascaded conversions. In addition time resolved spectral analysis of wavelength conversion is presented.

[1]  B. Glance,et al.  Wavelength conversion at 10 Gb/s using a semiconductor optical amplifier , 1993, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[2]  J. Wiesenfeld.  Wavelength Conversion: Physics And Devices , 1997, CLEO '97., Summaries of Papers Presented at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics.

[3]  T. Elsaesser,et al.  Generation of synchronized femtosecond pulses independently tunable in the mid-infrared , 1993 .

[4]  G. Sherlock,et al.  20-nm optical wavelength conversion using nondegenerate four-wave mixing , 1993, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[5]  M. Kakui,et al.  Observation of highly nondegenerate four-wave mixing in 1.5 mu m traveling-wave semiconductor optical amplifiers and estimation of nonlinear gain coefficient , 1992 .

[6]  Kerry J. Vahala,et al.  Effect of doping on the optical gain and the spontaneous noise enhancement factor in quantum well amplifiers and lasers studied by simple analytical expressions , 1988 .

[7]  D. Cotter,et al.  All-optical AND gate operating on 10 Gbit/s signals at the same wavelength using four-wave mixing in a semiconductor laser amplifier , 1995 .

[8]  M.J. O'Mahony,et al.  Optical transmission system penalties due to fiber polarization mode dispersion , 1994, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[9]  M. T. Smith,et al.  A scalable multiwavelength multihop optical network: a proposal for research on all-optical networks , 1993 .

[10]  M. Ziari,et al.  Cascaded wavelength conversion by four-wave mixing in a strained semiconductor optical amplifier at 10 Gb/s , 1997, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[11]  Gregory Raybon,et al.  BER measurements of frequency converted signals using four-wave mixing in a semiconductor laser amplifier at 1, 2.5, 5 and 10 Gbit/s , 1994 .

[12]  S. Yoo.  Wavelength conversion technologies for WDM network applications , 1996 .

[13]  A. Willner,et al.  SNR improvement of four-wave mixing wavelength shifting by noise prefiltering in a semiconductor optical amplifier , 1996, Summaries of papers presented at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics.

[14]  B. Miller,et al.  Four-wave mixing wavelength conversion efficiency in semiconductor traveling-wave amplifiers measured to 65 nm of wavelength shift , 1994, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[15]  Arthur J. Lowery,et al.  All-optical TDM to WDM conversion in a semiconductor optical amplifier , 1994 .

[16]  C. Brackett.  Is there an emerging consensus on WDM network , 1996 .

[17]  Antonio Mecozzi,et al.  Very high efficiency four‐wave mixing in a single semiconductor traveling‐wave amplifier , 1996 .

[18]  Wavelength conversion up to 18 nm at 10 Gb/s by four-wave mixing in a semiconductor optical amplifier , 1997, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[19]  T. Koch,et al.  Effect of nonlinear gain reduction on semiconductor laser wavelength chirping , 1986 .

[20]  Rodney S. Tucker,et al.  Four-channel WDM optical phase conjugator using four-wave mixing in a single semiconductor optical amplifier , 1995 .

[21]  D. M. Spirit,et al.  Transmission of 10 Gbit/s directly modulated DFB signals over 200 km standard fibre using mid-span spectral inversion , 1994 .

[22]  Rodney S. Tucker,et al.  Noise figure and conversion efficiency of four-wave mixing in semiconductor optical amplifiers , 1995 .

[23]  K. Inoue.  Four-wave mixing in an optical fiber in the zero-dispersion wavelength region , 1992 .

[24]  Kerry J. Vahala,et al.  Ultrafast WDM logic , 1997 .

[25]  T. Chikama,et al.  Compensation of chromatic dispersion in a single-mode fiber by optical phase conjugation , 1993, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[26]  S. L. Danielsen,et al.  All-optical wavelength conversion by semiconductor optical amplifiers , 1996 .

[27]  A Yariv,et al.  Compensation for channel dispersion by nonlinear optical phase conjugation. , 1979, Optics letters.

[28]  N. Olsson,et al.  Self-phase modulation and spectral broadening of optical pulses in semiconductor laser amplifiers , 1989 .

[29]  J. Mørk,et al.  Wave mixing in semiconductor laser amplifiers due to carrier heating and spectral-hole burning , 1994 .

[30]  R.S. Tucker,et al.  Optimization of pump and signal powers for wavelength converters based on FWM in semiconductor optical amplifiers , 1996, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[31]  P. Spano,et al.  Low-noise and very high-efficiency four-wave mixing in 1.5-mm-long semiconductor optical amplifiers , 1997, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[32]  Govind P. Agrawal,et al.  Population pulsations and nondegenerate four-wave mixing in semiconductor lasers and amplifiers , 1988 .

[33]  Gain dispersion and saturation effects in four-wave mixing in semiconductor laser amplifiers , 1996 .

[34]  Analytical theory of terahertz four‐wave mixing in semiconductor‐laser amplifiers , 1996 .

[35]  J. M. Wiesenfeld.  GAIN DYNAMICS AND ASSOCIATED NONLINEARITIES IN SEMICONDUCTOR OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS , 1996 .

[36]  U. Koren,et al.  Polarization-independent wavelength conversion at 2.5 Gb/s by dual-pump four-wave mixing in a strained semiconductor optical amplifier , 1996, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[37]  Mark Shtaif,et al.  Noise characteristics of nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifiers in the Gaussian limit , 1996 .

[38]  M. Shtaif,et al.  Four-wave mixing among short optical pulses in semiconductor optical amplifiers , 1995, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[39]  U. Hilbk,et al.  Polarization insensitive frequency conversion of a 10-channel OFDM signal using four-wave-mixing in a semiconductor laser amplifier , 1994 .

[40]  Robert B. Lee,et al.  FOUR-WAVE MIXING IN SEMICONDUCTOR TRAVELING-WAVE AMPLIFIERS FOR WAVELENGTH CONVERSION IN ALL-OPTICAL NETWORKS , 1996 .

[41]  Ivan P. Kaminow,et al.  A Precompetitive Consortium on Wide-band All Optical Networks , 1993 .

[42]  Antonio Mecozzi,et al.  Four-wave mixing in traveling-wave semiconductor amplifiers , 1995 .

[43]  R. Linke,et al.  Modulation induced transient chirping in single frequency lasers , 1985 .

[44]  Andrew D. Ellis,et al.  40 Gbit/s transmission over 406 km of NDSF using mid-span spectral inversion by four-wave-mixing in a 2 mm long semiconductor optical amplifier , 1997 .

[45]  B. Mikkelsen,et al.  Wavelength Converters: Network Applications And Systems Experiments , 1997, CLEO '97., Summaries of Papers Presented at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics.

[46]  A.E. Willner,et al.  All-optical wavelength shifting of microwave subcarriers by using four-wave mixing in a semiconductor optical amplifier , 1996, Optical Fiber Communications, OFC..

[47]  B. Miller,et al.  Efficiency of broadband four-wave mixing wavelength conversion using semiconductor traveling-wave amplifiers , 1994, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[48]  A. Mecozzi,et al.  Analytical theory of four-wave mixing in semiconductor amplifiers. , 1994, Optics letters.

[49]  Kerry J. Vahala,et al.  Terahertz four‐wave mixing spectroscopy for study of ultrafast dynamics in a semiconductor optical amplifier , 1993 .