Polarization-Insensitive Wavelength Conversion by FWM of 100-GHz-Spaced DWDM 4 $,\times,$ 10 Gb/s RZ-BPSK Signals in a Birefringent Nonlinear AlGaAs Waveguide

Polarization-insensitive (PI) wavelength conversion of 100-GHz-spaced wavelength-division multiplexed 4 × 10 Gb/s return-to-zero binary phase-shift keyed (RZ-BPSK) signals was successfully demonstrated utilizing four-wave mixing for the first time in a passive, birefringent nonlinear AlGaAs waveguide. In addition to a pump launch angle adjustment, a minimum pump-probe detuning was also required to mitigate polarization-induced power fluctuations in the probe. The PI-wavelength-converted signals all demonstrated a pre-amplified receiver sensitivity penalty of less than ≈ 2 dB at 10^-9 bit-error-rate, relative to their respective baseline RZ-BPSK signals.