Conversion of 10 Gb/s NRZ-OOK to RZ-OOK utilizing XPM in a si nanowire

We have demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge, the conversion of 10 Gb/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) ON-OFF keying (NRZ-OOK) to RZ-OOK using cross-phase modulation (XPM) in a compact, Silicon (Si) nanowire and a detuned filter. The pulse format conversion resulted in a polarity-preserved, correctly-coded RZ-OOK signal, with no evidence of an error-floor for BER < 10-11. The advantages of a passive Si nanowire can lead to a compact, power-efficient, highly simplified configuration, amenable to chip-level integration. © 2009 Optical Society of America.