Steptunable, all-optical wavelength conversion using cavity-enhanced four-wave mixing

Abstract

All-optical wavelength converters are key elements for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical communications systems, due to the need for reuse of the limited number of available carrier wavelengths. Wavelength converters based on four-wave mixing (FWM) in traveling wave amplifiers are being developed for use in systems that require transparency to modulation format. These devices are continuously tunable over a THz range, but the efficiency decays rapidly for conversion distances exceeding a few GHz.