SOA-Assisted Data-Polarization-Insensitive Wavelength Conversion in a PPLN Waveguide

Author

Fazal, Irfan ; Kumar, Saurabh ; Li, Yunchu ; Christen, Lou ; Saghari, Poorya ; Langrock, Carsten ; Fejer, M.M. ; Willner, Alan E.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng.-Syst., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Volume

26

Issue

12

fYear

2008

fDate

6/15/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1690

Lastpage

1695

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel method of wavelength conversion in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide using polarization modulation and amplitude modulation of its pump. Polarization-insensitive, all-optical, intensity-to-polarization conversion in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is used to reduce the waveguide´s polarization sensitivity from >30 dB to <1 dB. We demonstrate BER measurements of the converted signal at 2.5 Gb/s. We also demonstrate polarization modulation of the PPLN waveguide pump using cross-polarization modulation in highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) at 10 Gb/s.

Keywords

amplitude modulation; error statistics; lithium compounds; optical fibre communication; optical fibre polarisation; optical modulation; optical pumping; optical wavelength conversion; photorefractive materials; semiconductor optical amplifiers; BER measurements; LiNbO₃; PPLN waveguide pump; SOA-assisted data-polarization; all-optical intensity-to-polarization conversion; amplitude modulation; bit rate 10 Gbit/s; bit rate 2.5 Gbit/s; cross-polarization modulation; highly nonlinear fiber; periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide; polarization modulation; polarization-insensitive conversion; semiconductor optical amplifier; wavelength conversion; Amplitude modulation; Bit error rate; Lithium niobate; Optical fiber polarization; Optical polarization; Optical waveguides; Optical wavelength conversion; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Semiconductor waveguides; Wavelength measurement; Periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide; polarization sensitivity; semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA); wavelength conversion;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2008.920089

Filename

4542955