Format conversion of optical data using four-wave mixing in semiconductor optical amplifiers

We present an analysis of the effect of four-wave mixing (FWM) on the pulse propagation in the active region of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). Our model, based on a rate equation approach, successfully predicts operation of optical data sampling using FWM interaction between a signal bitstream and an optical clock. Such a process can be used for format conversion of optical pulses from nonreturn-to-zero to return-to-zero bitstreams.