32-GBd 16QAM Optical Signals Wavelength Conversion based on Four-Wave Mixing Phenomena in Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

A scheme based on the four-wave mixing (FWM) phenomena in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) is optimized and characterized for low-penalty wavelength conversion of 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulated (16QAM) signals with symbol rates equal to 20 GBd, 28 GBd, and 32 GBd. Through an experimental optimization process, the SOA operational conditions were adjusted to avoid severe degradation of the converted signal due to nonlinear phenomena and noise insertion, while maximizing the conversion efficiency avoiding spurious FWM products. The obtained results indicate the feasibility of employing ultra-nonlinear SOAs to perform low-penalty wavelength conversion in coherent optical systems.