All-Optical OTDM-to-WDM Signal Conversion Using Cross-Absorption Modulation With Time- and Wavelength-Interleaved Short Pulses

Using two cascaded stages of cross-absorption modulation in electroabsorption modulators, we have successfully demonstrated the conversion of 40-Gb/s optical time-division- multiplexing to 4 ?? 10 Gb/s wavelength-division-multiplexing signals. Our approach exploits the generation of 40-GHz time- and wavelength-interleaved pulses that determines the wavelength assignment of the output. The setup is compact, potentially integrable, and operates at moderate optical power levels. Bit-error-rate measurement shows error-free operation of our conversion scheme with a 4- to 6-dB power penalty.