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1310-nm to 1550-nm Wavelength Conversion by Utilizing Nonlinear Polarization Rotation in a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier
J. P. Turkiewicz, J. J. Vegas-Olmos, G. D. Khoe, and H. de Waardt
COBRA Research Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands Tel.: +31402472091, Fax: +31402455197 ]. turkiewicz(~tue, nl

Abstract: We demonstrate a novel all-optical 1310-nm to 1550-nm wavelength converter based on nonlinear polarization rotation in a single semiconductor optical amplifier. Error-free polarization insensitive 1310-nm to 1550-nm wavelength conversion is shown at 10-Gbit/s. 2005 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (060.4510) Opticalcommunications;(250.4480) Opticalamplifiers 1. Introduction Recently, there has been growing interest in optical communication systems utilizing the whole low loss bandwidth of silica fibre. The availability of low-cost optical couplers capable of separate the 1310-nm and 1550-nm wavelength bands, makes them a promising solution for cost sensitive local access systems. A number of access schemes utilizing simultaneously the 1310-nm and 1550-nm transmission windows have been proposed [ 1,2]. A key component in all-optical communication networks utilizing the whole low loss bandwidth of the silica fibre is an ultra wideband wavelength converter [3]. Use of all-optical ultra wideband wavelength converters will enhance network flexibility, allowing a wavelength conversion between different transmission windows without an opticalelectrical-optical conversion. Ultra wideband wavelength converters applied in local access systems have to deliver high performance while maintaining low cost. Several 1310-nm to 1550-nm wavelengths converters have been reported [3-6]. A cost effective alternative to wavelength converters utilizing an expensive LiNbO3 waveguide [4] are wavelength converters employing semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). The demonstrated wavelength converters based on a split contact SOA [5] and a distributed feedback SOA [6] have limited bit rate to below 1 Gbit/s. An error-free 1.25 Gbit/s 1310-nm to 1550-nm wavelength conversion is achieved by an SOA operating in Mach-Zehnder Interferometer configuration [3]. However a complicated control mechanism is required and the bit rate is limited to below 2 Gbit/s. A 1550-nm to 1310-nm wavelength conversion is demonstrated for return-to-zero signals in a nonlinear optical loop mirror (high average input power of 21 dBm at 1550 nm is required) [7]. In this letter we report a novel all-optical 1310-nm to 1550-nm wavelength converter based on nonlinear polarization rotation in a single SOA. We demonstrate an error-free polarization insensitive wavelength conversion from 1310-nm to 1550-nm at bit rate 10 Gbit/s by using a single SOA. The nonlinear polarization rotation in the SOA was utilized previously for e.g. demultiplexing [8], or in-band wavelength conversion [9]. However nonlinear polarization rotation in the transparency region of the SOA has not been reported until now. The presented wavelength converter has several key advantages: a single SOA is used, it eliminates optical-electrical-optical conversion enabling transparent all-optical networking, operates at high bit rates, requires moderate input power, and is polarization insensitive. 2. Experimental setup and principle of operation Fig. 1 shows the experimental setup. An intensity modulated nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) signal at 1310-nm enters the wavelength converter through a polarization controller (PC 1). Next, the 1310-nm NRZ signal passes through a 1310-nm/1550-nm wideband coupler (WC1) and finally enters a 1310-nm SOA. The used multi quantum well SOA (produced by Philips, currently JDS Uniphase, The Netherlands) has an active length of 800 ~m. The 1310-nm SOA is employed in bidirectional configuration. The polarization of a 1550-nm continous wave (CW) light is adjusted in a polarization controller (PC2) to be approximately 45 to the orientation of the SOA polarization axes. Then the 1550-nm CW signal passes through a second wideband coupler (WC2), and is fed into the 1310-nm SOA. The 1550-rim signal travels through the 1310-nm SOA in the opposite direction to the 1310-nm NRZ signal. The SOA is a birefringent device. The injected 1310-nm light introduces via carrier density changes additional birefringence in the SOA [10,11 ], which causes the transverse magnetic (TM) and the transverse electric (TE) modes of the

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Fig. 1. Experimentalsetup travelling through the SOA signals to experience a different refractive index, also in the transparency region of the SOA. Therefore, the recombined at the SOA output 1550-nm signal has a changed state of polarization in respect to a 1550-nm signal without any 1310-nm signal present. After passing through the SOA the 1550-nm signal is separated from the 1310 nm signal in the WC 1 and enters a polarization filter formed by a polarization beam splitter (PBS) in combination with a polarization controller (PC3). The PBS has an extinction ratio of more than 20 dB. The PC3 is adjusted in such a way that the 1550-nm signal with the rotated polarization passes through the PBS. After passing through the PBS the 1550-nm signal enters a pre-amplified receiver with the bit error rate (BER) tester. The pre-amplified receiver consists of a variable attenuator (ATT), an erbium doped fibre amplifier (EDFA), bandpass filter (BPA), and a 10 Gbit/s data receiver.

3. Experiments and results We generated a 9.95328 Gbit/s NRZ signal by modulating a CW signal at 1310-nm in an external Mach-Zehnder modulator with the pseudo random binary sequence (PRBS) of length 231-1. The average power of the input NRZ 1310-nm signal was set to 4.6 dBm and the power of the 1550-nm laser CW to 5.5 dBm. Operation of the wavelength converter is determined by the two polarization controllers (PC2 and PC3) and the 1310-nm SOA driving current. We set the SOA current to 300 mA. The 1550-nm signal experiences high attenuation in the 1310nm SOA. We measured the SOA attenuation to be 13 dB at 0 mA SOA current and 20 dB at 300 mA SOA current. This high penalty is due to fiber-SOA coupling loss, waveguide scattering, and free-carrier absorption. The losses in the 1310-nm SOA can be compensated by 1550-nm signal amplification after the wavelength converter. Fig. 2 shows eye diagrams and signal traces at 10 Gbit/s. The eye diagram for the converted 1550-nm signal shows clear open eye and indicates excellent operation of the wavelength converter. Finally we investigated the performance of the proposed wavelength converter by measuring BER. Fig. 3 shows the BER curves for a converted and a reference back-to-back signal as a function of the measured optical power before a pre-amplifying EDFA. As a reference we used a 1550-nm NRZ signal generated in the same external Mach- Zehnder modulator. The power penalty for the non-inverted conversion at BER 10 .9 is 2.4 dB and no BER error floor is observed. We attribute this penalty to

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Fig. 3. Results of the BER measurements; PRBS 231-1 the pattern effect in the SOA. Pattering effects due to the slow recovery time o f the S O A can be reduced by using a longer S O A or by introducing an additional gain-saturating C W signal [ 12]. To verify the polarization sensitivity we changed the state o f polarization o f the input 1310-nm N R Z signal by adjusting the polarization controller PC 1. The wavelength converter polarization sensitivity was measured to be 0.6 dB at B E R 10 -9.
4. C o n c l u s i o n s

W e have demonstrated a novel all-optical 1310-nm to 1550-nm wavelength converter based on nonlinear polarization rotation in a single SOA. An error-free 1310-nm to 1550-nm wavelength conversion at 10 Gbit/s is shown for the first time. The wavelength converter operates at high bit rate (10 Gbit/s), has low polarization sensitivity (<1 dB), requires moderate input powers, and maintains low cost, which makes it an attractive solution for the access systems. The presented wavelength converter concept can in principle be used for any wavelength upconversion from the gain region of the SOA, making it interesting for applications in networks utilizing the whole low loss bandwidth o f silica fibre.
5. R e f e r e n c e s

1. c. R. Giles, R.D. Feldman, T. H. Wood, M. Zimgibl, (3. Raybon, T. Strasser, L. Stulz, A. McComick, C. H. Joyner, and C. R. Doerr, "Singlefiber access PON using downstream 1550nm WDM routing and upstream 1300 nm power combining through a fibre-grating router," ECOC 1996 Oslo, Norway, 1996, paper WeB. 1.4. 2. D. (3. Cunningham, "The status of the 10-(3igabit Ethernet standard," ECOC 2001, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2001, paper WEB.3.5. 3. J. P. R. Lacey, (3. J. Pendock, and R. S. Tucker, "All-Optical 1300-nm to 1550-nm wavelength conversion using cross-phase modulation in a semiconductor optical amplifier," IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 8, 885-887 (1996). 4. C. Q. Xu, H. Okayama, and M. Kawahara, "Wavelength conversion between the two silica loss windows at 1.31 and 1.55 ~tm using difference frequency generation," Electron. Lett. 30, 2168-2169 (1994). 5. P. E. Bamsley and P. J. Fiddyment, "Wavelength conversion from 1.3 to 1.55 ~tm using split contact optical amplifiers," IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 3, 256-258 (1995). 6. D. N. Maywar, Y. Nakano, and (3. P. Agrawal, "1.31 -to-1.55 ~tm wavelength conversion by optically pumping a distributed feedback amplifier," IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 12,858-860 (2000). 7. Mahgerefieh, M. W. Chbat, J. S. Wey, and (3. L. Burdge, "Bandwidth and bit Error rate performance of walk-offcompensating 1.5/1.3 ~tm wavelength converter," Electron. Lett. 31, 1380-1381 (1995). 8. D. M. Patrick, A. D. Ellis, D. A. O. Davies, M. C. Tatham, and (3. Sherlock, "Demultilexing using polarization rotation in a semiconductor laser amplifier," Electron. Lett. 30,341-342 (1994). 9. M. F. C. Stephens, M. Asghari, R. V. Penty, and I. H. White, "Demonstration of ultrafast all-optical wavelength conversion utilizing birefringence in semiconductor optical amplifier," IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 9, 449-451 (1997). 10. R. J. Manning, A. Antonopoulos, R. Le Roux, and A. E. Kelly, "Experimental measurement of nonlinear polarization rotation in semiconductor optical amplifiers," Electron. Lett. 37, 231-229 (2001). 11. H. J. S. Dorren, D. Lenstra, Y.Liu, M. T.Hill, and G. D. Khoe, "Nonlinear polarization rotation in semicoductor optical amplifiers: theory and application to all-optical flip-flop memories," IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 39,141-147 (2003). 12. T. Durhuus, B. Mikkelsen, C. Joergensen, S. L. Danielsen, K. E. Stubkjaer, "All-optical wavelength conversion by semiconductor optical amplifiers," IEEE J. Lightwave Technol. 14,942-954 (1996).