Cross-gain compression in semiconductor optical amplifiers

In this paper, we present a novel scheme that exploits cross-gain modulation (XGM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) without overall pattern effects. This technique uses two signals with reversed-intensity modulation and different wavelength to exploit propagation and gain-compression dynamics in gain-saturated SOAs at almost constant overall input power. The resulting cross-gain-compression mechanism between copropagating waves can lead to all-optical waveform reshaping. By using this technique, we experimentally demonstrate enhanced wavelength conversion by XGM and wavelength-preserving noise compression at 10 Gb/s.