Wavelength exchange in a highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber: theory and experiments

With a suitable arrangement of two pumps and two signals with respect to the zero-dispersion wavelength of a fiber, simultaneous wavelength exchange between two signals can be realized by four-wave mixing in the fiber. We have demonstrated near-complete wavelength exchange between two signals at 1573.4 and 1579.9 nm with two 0.25-W pumps in a 1-km-long highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber. We also have evaluated the bit-error-rate performance of wavelength exchange with a 10-Gb/s signal, and obtained a power penalty of less than 1 dB for the exchanged signal.