Four-Wave-Mixing-Based Dual-Wavelength Conversion in a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

The simultaneous wavelength conversion of two different formats or bit-rate optical signals, with low input power, is demonstrated in a highly nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifier with a single strong continuous-wave pump. For two amplitude-modulated signals of different bit rates, moderate penalties are obtained, and for the case of mixed amplitude and phase modulation at 10 Gb/s, practically penalty-free operation is achieved. In all cases, small difference (<; 1.1 dB) between single- and dual-channel operation is obtained, allowing asynchronous operation.