Characterization of the modulated ASE noise in an SOA-MZI wavelength converter

Abstract

The experimental results are obtained using an integrated all-active three-port semiconductor optical amplifier Mach Zehnder interferometric (SOA-MZI) wavelength converter. An advantage of using counter-propagating signals is that an optical filter is not required at the output of the wavelength converter. Based on a detailed experimental characterization of the modulated ASE, it has been shown that any subsequent filtering that takes place must be considered in setting the operating point of the wavelength converter.