Efficient ultra-fast all-optical wavelength converters with Ti:PPLN waveguides

Applications of packaged and pigtailed (tunable) integrated all-optical Ti:PPLN wavelength converters (AOWC) with different modulation formats (RZ-DQPSK, 16-ary QAM) are reported. The devices take advantage of cascaded second order nonlinear interactions allowing tuning with either one or two control waves via cSHG/DFG or cSFG/DFG. Operation of polarization insensitive AOWCs on a variety of presented high-bit-rate (up to 320 Gb/s) transmission experiments and mid-span chromatic dispersion compensation in the C-band with negligible penalties promises great potential for application in transparent all-optical networks (TAON). In addition recent progress with respect to bandwidth and efficiency of the cSHG/DFG-based wavelength converters is reported. The efficiency is increased by pump-resonant wavelength conversion and by increased interaction length in a phase controlled double-pass scheme.