Effect of Intraband effects on wavelength conversion of high-speed signals using cross-gain modulation in SOA

Wavelength conversion is very essential in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks where blocking due to wavelength contention can be reduced to a good extent. We present a theoretical model to analyze the effect of intraband effects like spectral hole burning and carrier heating on wavelength conversion exploiting the cross-gain modulation (XGM) technique in a bulk semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Though XGM technique have the shortcomings like large chirping in the converted signal and degradation of extinction ratio in wavelength up-conversion, but still it is favored due to its simple to implementation and good performance at high signal-rates. It is also polarization independent provided the SOA used is also polarization independent. Using our model, we show the effect of these intraband effects on the output converted pulse, chirping of the output signal and on the efficiency of conversion. Besides, an overall gain compression, there is a fast recovery of the gain due to the intraband effects.