Polarization-Insensitive Wavelength Conversion by FWM in a Highly Nonlinear PCF of Polarization-Scrambled 10-Gb/s RZ-OOK and RZ-DPSK Signals

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 19; no. 20; pp. 1676 - 1678
• Main Authors: Astar, W., Lenihan, A.S., Carter, G.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 15-10-2007; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Birefringence; Conversion; Differential phase shift keying; differential phase-shift keying (DPSK); Differential quadrature phase shift keying; Format; Four-wave mixing; four-wave mixing (FWM); Modulation; modulation formats; Noise levels; Nonlinearity; on-off keying (OOK); Optical fiber polarization; Optical fiber theory; photonic crystal fiber (PCF); Photonic crystal fibers; Photonic crystals; polarization scrambling; return-to-zero (RZ); Wavelength conversion; Wavelengths; Wideband
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2007.905052

Wavelength conversion of polarization-scrambled 10-Gb/s on-off keyed and differential phase-shift-keyed signals for which the pulse format was 33% return-to-zero, has been achieved by partially degenerate four-wave mixing in a record 20-m-short highly nonlinear photonic crystal fiber. It was found that a minimum pump-probe detuning of ~9 nm was required to achieve polarization-insensitive wavelength conversion of <1 dB, resulting in a 10 -9 -receiver sensitivity penalty of <1 dB, for both modulation formats.