Efficient All-Optical Wavelength-Conversion Scheme Based on a Saw-Tooth Pulse Shaper

We experimentally demonstrate the use of saw-tooth optical pulses, generated using a superstructured fiber Bragg grating, to achieve high performance and efficient all-optical wavelength conversion in a scheme based on cross-phase modulation in a highly nonlinear fiber, with subsequent offset filtering. Compared to the use of more conventional waveforms, such as Gaussian pulses, the purpose-shaped saw-tooth pulses allow an improvement in the optical signal-to-noise ratio of the wavelength-converted signal of around 15 dB as well as a more than 6-dB improvement in receiver sensitivity.