All-optical wavelength conversion by EAM with shifted bandpass filter for high bit-rate networks

We report an original optical wavelength converter for transparent network and high-speed transmission. Based on an electroabsorption modulator (EAM) in cross-absorption modulation configuration, a red-shifted center wavelength filtering of the converted signal decreases the impact of the limited EAM response time. This original and simple device demonstrates wavelength conversion at 40 Gb/s, leading to a reduction of 4.7 dB on the bit-error rate (BER) penalty compared to the case of a centered filter. An absolute 1.8-dB BER power penalty, low switching energy (500 fJ/data pulse) and small applied DC bias are reported.