Novel Transparent Wavelength Converter Based on Four-wave Mixing in a SOA Fiber Ring Laser

A fully transparent wavelength converter is demonstrated based on four-wave mixing (FWM) in a semiconductor optical amplifier-fiber ring laser. Two WDM signals at the wavelength of 1 549.3 nm and 1 550.9 nm are respectively converted simultaneously with a maximum wavelength shift of 6.4 nm for the first time. High nondegeneration FWM is observed for a detuning range over 3 THz. This scheme has better conversion efficiency than that of conventional single semiconductor optical amplifier converter.