All-optical 40-Gbit/s compact integrated interferometric wavelength converter

An interferometric Michelson wavelength converter is presented that combines a speed-optimized semiconductor optical amplifier technology with the benefits of the integrated interferometer showing 40-Gbit/s wavelength conversion. The optimized wavelength converter demonstrates noninverted converted signals as well as converts to both shorter and longer wavelengths. Excellent results are achieved with /spl sim/10 dB extinction ratio and more than 25 dB signal-to-ASE (amplified spontaneous emission) ratio (1 nm) for the converted signals at 40 Gbit/s.