Monolithically integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer wavelength converter and widely tunable laser in InP

The first monolithically integrated widely tunable wavelength converter, consisting of a sampled-grating distributed-Bragg-reflector laser (SGDBR) and an SOA-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer, is reported. The integration process requires only a single regrowth step. Static extinction ratios (electrical/optical) better than 18 dB and 13 dB, respectively, were measured over a 22-nm wavelength tuning range. Digital wavelength conversion at bit rate of 2.5 Gb/s was demonstrated to be error free, with 2.6-dB power penalty.