Impact of the Input Pulse Width on the Performance of a 10 Gb/s SOA-DI Wavelength Converter

For a wavelength converter based on a semiconductor optical amplifier and a delayed interferometer, the performance implications of the pulse width for a 10 Gb/s RZ input signal are studied experimentally and theoretically. As the pulse width increases, the wavelength converted signal exhibits an increasingly pronounced pattern effect and decrease in the Q-factor. This is caused by the gain/phase recovery time of the semiconductor optical amplifier. The experimental and theoretical results indicate that pulse widths of 15-25 ps are required in order to avoid a penalty in performance