A novel interferometric wavelength converter

Fiber Kerr effect employment in wavelength conversion, owing to low silica nonlinearity, has been prevented by the lack of an efficient interferometri c architecture. A novel all-fiber wavelength converter is presented and cha racterized. The proposed scheme while taking advantage of the Kerr effect p roperties in standard communication optical fiber overcomes classical inter ferometric structures limitations, such as high environmental sensitivity a nd difficult operating management, A comparison,vith these architectures is discussed. Operation up to 3 Gb/s is demonstrated in the whole third commu nication window.