All-Optical RZ-DPSK WDM to RZ-DQPSK Phase Multiplexing Using Four-Wave Mixing in Highly Nonlinear Fiber

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-optical phase multiplexing scheme using four-wave mixing in a highly nonlinear fiber. Two 10-Gb/s pi/2-shifted return-to-zero (RZ) differential phase-shift-keying (DPSK) wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) signals are successfully phase-multiplexed into a 20-Gb/s RZ differential quadrature phase-shift-keying signal with a negative 1.6-dB power penalty. With more input DPSK WDM signals, the proposed scheme can be applied to obtain a multilevel phase-shift-keying signal with increased capacity and enhanced spectral efficiency.