Abstract

We demonstrate optical wavelength conversion by modulation instability (MI) effect in high nonlinearity dispersion shifted (HNL-DS) fibers with loop configuration formed by a polarization beam splitter. The polarization sensitivity is to <0.65 dB and it is maintained over >30 nm conversion band. By optimizing fiber length to 315 m, in-band cross talk is reduced to <-27 dB while maintaining >4.7 dB conversion efficiency. Compared to previous works, simultaneous conversion of the whole C-band to S-band is demonstrated with >20 nm increment in conversion band, >2 dB improvement in polarization sensitivity over 30 nm bandwidth, and >10 dB lower cross talk.^1-4 Wavelength converters are important for lightwave communications. However, inherent problem of polarization sensitivity due to changes in phase mismatch and cross talk limits its applications. We demonstrate that by utilizing MI in length optimized loop configuration reduces polarization sensitivity and cross talk to <0.6 dB and <-27 dB.

© 2002 Optical Society of America