Pattern-effect-free all-optical wavelength conversion using a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide with ultra-fast carrier decay.

Ultra-fast carrier decay, recently discovered in a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide, can be exploited for pattern-effect-free all-optical signal processing based on optical Kerr nonlinearity. In this study, we utilized a 10 Gbit/s RZ-OOK data stream as a pump for degenerate four-wave mixing in a low-loss hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide. The propagation loss of the waveguide used was 1.0 +/- 0.2 dB/cm at 1550 nm. Unlike crystalline silicon waveguides, no noticeable difference was observed in the BER characteristics between the cases of PRBS 2(7) - 1 and 2(31) - 1. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America