Optical data inversion by locking mode competition

Using the behaviour of a Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser under the injection of two optical beams, all-optical data inversion is demonstrated without changes in the data carrier wavelength, together with a simultaneous wavelength conversion without data inversion. The output optical power at the inverted binary one state (-12 dBm) is greater than that corresponding to the inversion threshold (-16 dBm), which enables such operations to be repeated several times in cascade. These operations have been performed at a bit rate of 2 Gbit/s at 1.55 μm.