Abstract All-optical wavelength converters (AOWCs) based on state-of-the-art highly nonlinear optical fibers (HNLFs) are best matched with future large-capacity optical networks because of their characteristic of fast response. AOWCs play important roles in wavelength-routed optical networks to alleviate the constraint of conflicted wavelengths and in optical phase conjugation networks to mitigate the effects of fiber nonlinearities. Generally, conversion efficiency (CE) is a key evaluation index of AOWCs and higher CE corresponds to better transmission performance. However, it is challenging to achieve higher CE because the launched pump powers into HNLFs are usually limited by their stimulated Brillouin scattering thresholds. Actually, the performance of AOWCs, i.e., that of the idlers, depends on both of their CEs and the signal powers. Thus, it is feasible to achieve good performance for AOWCs with lower CEs as that with higher CEs by optimizing the launched signal powers into HNLFs. Our experimental results verified the above proposal in the AOWCs with the CEs of –23.1 dB, −19.1 dB, −15.2 dB, −11.4 dB and −7.9 dB. The proposed AOWCs was used as optical phase conjugation in the 64-QAM coherent optical transmission experimental system and good compensation performances have been achieved under the above five operating conditions.

中文翻译：

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用于光相位共轭的节能全光波长转换器

摘要 基于最先进的高度非线性光纤（HNLF）的全光波长转换器（AOWC）由于其响应速度快的特点，最适合未来的大容量光网络。AOWC 在波长路由光网络中发挥重要作用，以减轻冲突波长的约束，并在光相位共轭网络中发挥重要作用，以减轻光纤非线性的影响。通常，转换效率（CE）是 AOWC 的关键评价指标，更高的 CE 对应更好的传输性能。然而，实现更高的 CE 具有挑战性，因为发射到 HNLF 的泵浦功率通常受到其受激布里渊散射阈值的限制。实际上，AOWC 的性能，即空闲器的性能，取决于它们的 CE 和信号功率。因此，通过优化发射到 HNLF 的信号功率，对于具有较低 CE 的 AOWC 获得与具有较高 CE 的 AOWC 相同的良好性能是可行的。我们的实验结果在 AOWC 中验证了上述提议，CE 为 –23.1 dB、-19.1 dB、-15.2 dB、-11.4 dB 和 -7.9 dB。所提出的 AOWC 被用作 64-QAM 相干光传输实验系统中的光相位共轭，并且在上述五种工作条件下都取得了良好的补偿性能。