Monolithic integrated Mach-Zehnder wavelength converter: conversion and transmission experiments at 5 Gbit/s

All-optical wavelength conversion is an important function for realization of effective optical switches and for wavelength reuse in wavelength-division-multiplexed networks. Several types of wavelength converters have been proposed1–4 but the interferometric converters are strong candidates for practical implementations because of their excellent characteristics. For example, they convert penalty free to both shorter and longer wavelengths and also reshape the converted signal.4