Improving the all-optical response of SOAs using a modulated holding signal

A method for increasing the all-optical modulation bandwidth of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) by use of a cross-gain-modulated (XGM) holding signal is suggested and analyzed. The bandwidth improvement is numerically demonstrated by studying wavelength conversion in an SOA-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) at 160 and 40 Gb/s. The new scheme is predicted to improve the extinction ratio and the minimum mark output power, as well as to reduce the amplitude jitter of the wavelength converted signal.