TDM-to-WDM Conversion based on NOLM from 128.1 Gbit/s to 3 × 42.7 Gbit/s

A nonlinear optical switch performing conversion of a 128.1 Gbit/s OTDM channel simultaneously to 3 × 42.7 Gbit/s WDM is experimentally demonstrated. The proposed scheme is based on a nonlinear optical loop mirror incorporating a broadband gate with low dispersion and low channel walk-off and thus requires the use of low-dispersion, dispersion flattened HNLF. BER measurement results show no error floor, and a maximum 3.5 dB penalty for the three WDM channels is achieved.