Measurement-based method for characterizing the intensity and phase modulation properties of SOA-MZI wavelength converters

A novel model is described for an integrated all-active semiconductor optical amplified Mach Zehnder interferometric (SOA-MZI) wavelength converter that is based on the static dependence of the power- and /spl alpha/-parameter for the wavelength-converted signal on the input power, the intensity modulation frequency response, and the phase modulation frequency response. This provides a consistent procedure for the device characterization and modeling in which both the intensity and phase of the wavelength-converted signal are directly related to the intensity of the input signal. Good agreement is demonstrated between calculated and measured results for the time-resolved chirp and intensity.