Wavelength converter is
an optical device which is employed to translate information on an incoming
wavelength directly to a new wavelength without entering the electrical domain.
There exist two types of wavelength converters. They are optical grating wavelength
converters and wave mixing wavelength converters. During initial stages,
semiconductor laser systems, semiconductor optical amplifier systems and
nonlinear optical loop mirrors were tried to enable wavelength conversion. A
semiconductor optical amplifier in a cross-phase modulation mode yielded
positive response. Here in the active region, refractive index is dependent on
the carrier density. Data rates of 10 Gb/s and more can be easily handled by
optical grating wavelength converters. In wave mixing wavelength converters,
wavelength conversion is achieved by nonlinear optical wave mixing. The main
advantages of this type of converter are multiwavelength conversion capability
and transparency to the modulation format.
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