Jm. Wiesenfeld et al., WAVELENGTH CONVERSION AT 10 GB S USING A SEMICONDUCTOR OPTICAL AMPLIFIER/, IEEE photonics technology letters, 5(11), 1993, pp. 1300-1303
Data at 10 Gb/s has been translated from an input signal wavelength to
another wavelength, either longer dr shorter, using gain compression
in a 1.5-mu m semiconductor optical amplifier for wavelength conversio
n. To achieve operation at such high bit rates, the probe (shifted) in
put must be intense enough to compress significantly the gain of the a
mplifier. This reduces the gain recovery time of the amplifier because
of probe stimulated emission. A consequence of the intense probe is a
n extinction ratio reduction. Using moderate input powers, wavelength
conversion is achieved over a 17 nm (2 THz) range, with 0.7-3 dB power
penalties.