Improved bit-error-rate performance in frequency conversion of high-bit-rate data based on cross gain compression in semiconductor optical amplifiers

We describe a detailed calculation of the bit-error-rate performance of an optical frequency converter based on cross gain saturation in a semiconductor optical amplifier. Performance limits related to the slow-gain dynamics of the amplifier, as well as to noise, are presented and a modification to the detection system based on an adaptive decision threshold level that corrects for the performance deterioration due to dynamical effects is proposed.