Novel scheme for reducing the pattern effect in 40 Gbps SOA based all-optical switch utilizing transparent CW assist light

Abstract

We have successfully confirmed the reduction of the pattern effect in semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based all-optical switches at 40 Gb/s operation, utilizing the transparent CW assist light which clamped the gain profile of the SOA. Error-free operation without an error floor was obtained with a power penalty of 1 dB compared with the input data stream. The receiver sensitivity improvement of 2.3 dB was confirmed at BER=10/sup -9/. The scheme for the reduction of the pattern effect is an attractive method for high-speed operation because the required signal powers can be small.