Influence of phase mismatch on a spectral inverter based on four-wave mixing in dispersion-shifted fiber at 10 Gb/s

We investigate the influence of phase mismatch on the performance of a spectral inverter based on four-wave mixing in a commercial dispersion-shifted fiber. The inverter operates at 10 Gb/s. When the pump wave is tuned /spl plusmn/0.3 mn around the zero-dispersion wavelength of the fiber, the power penalty at 10/sup -9/ bit-error rate remains within the range of 1-2 dB, although the conjugate power is reduced considerably by almost 6 dB. A numerical calculation of the inverter's efficiency is also presented, which takes into account longitudinal variation of the zero-dispersion wavelength along the fiber.