Single and multicast wavelength conversion at 40 Gb/s by means of fast nonlinear polarization switching in an SOA

We experimentally demonstrate all-optical wavelength conversion of a 40-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero signal by means of nonlinear polarization switching in a single semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Using a highly nonlinear SOA optimized for very fast gain recovery time, we observe no appreciable penalty for the conventional (single) wavelength conversion. We also obtain, for the first time by using this technique, the simultaneous multiconversion to different wavelengths (four on a 200-GHz frequency grid) of an input signal.