Analyses of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) four-wave mixing (FWM) for future all-optical wavelength conversion

摘要

Four-wave mixing (FWM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) is currently one of the most attractive and promising wavelength conversion techniques for the all-optical future, and offers numerous advantages to the system designer. This paper investigates the performance of a 2.5 Gb/s SOA-based FWM wavelength converter system, in terms of its shifted wavelength conversion efficiency and optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR), for both up and down conversions. The converter is modeled and simulated using OptSim software, by varying the probe signal wavelength and power. It was found that the conversion efficiency and OSNR of the converted signal both decreased at large detuning wavelengths. Similarly, higher total SOA input powers worsened the conversion efficiency, but steadily improved the OSNR.