Three-stage wavelength converter based on cross-gain modulation in semiconductor optical amplifiers

A new cascaded three-stage all-optical wavelength converter based on cross- gain modulation (XGM) was analyzed and implemented using semiconductor opti cal amplifiers (SOAs) in a co-propagating arrangement. The optimal input po wers of both pump and probe signals and the attenuation between the stages are discussed to achieve the highest on-to-off extinction ratio in each sta ge. A complete noise model was developed to calculate the bit error rate (B ER), which is in good agreement with the experimental results. Power penalt y free operation was achieved with the three-stage up-wavelength converter. Crown copyright (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res erved.