Simultaneous Dual-Wavelength Conversion With Multiresonant Saturable Absorption Vertical-Cavity Semiconductor Gate

We experimentally demonstrate the use of a multiresonant, all-optical vertical-cavity semiconductor gate for simultaneously converting the wavelength of an optical data signal into two signals with different wavelengths. The operation of the gate is based on saturable absorption effect in multiple quantum-well structures. The repetition rate of the converted signal is limited by the recovery time of the saturable absorber. The device is compact, passive, polarization-independent, and enables wavelength conversion with a high extinction ratio of more than 10 dB and maximum optical signal-to-noise ratio penalty lower than 3 dB.