Tunable wavelength conversion in a semiconductor-fiber ring laser

A tunable wavelength converter is demonstrated using highly nondegenerate f our-wave mixing in a semiconductor-fiber ring cavity with no external pump light and low input signal power requirements. This device allows continuou s tuning of both pump and converted wavelengths over the semiconductor opti cal amplifier gain bandwidth. Results for 11.8-nm down- and 6.9-nm up-wavel ength conversion with input signal power as low as -10 dBm have been obtain ed at I Gb/s with less than 1.6-dB power penalty.