All-Optical Conversion From RZ to NRZ Using Gain-Clamped SOA

An all-optical converter from return-to-zero (RZ) pulses to the nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) format is presented. The converter operates in two stages: the laser generated in a gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is modulated with the data signal; afterwards this signal is wavelength- converted by cross-gain modulation in a common SOA. The setup is noninverting and can feature wavelength conversion. Experimental error-free conversion from 5- and 40-ps RZ pulses to NRZ format is presented at 10 Gb/s using a $2^{11}-1$ bit sequence.