All-optical RZ-to-NRZ data format conversion using spectral broadening effect in a dispersion-shifted fiber

We propose a simple and efficient approach to obtain all-optical RZ-to-NRZ data format conversion using self-phase modulation (SPM) in a dispersion-shifted fiber. By exploiting SPM induced spectral broadening together with group velocity dispersion in the normal regime, a 10 Gb/s return-to-zero data signal has been converted to the non-return-to-zero format. The proposed scheme can work with different signal bit rates and does not require any external pulse duplicator. The 10 Gb/s bit-error-rate (BER) measurement shows a power penalty of less than 1.5 dB at 10−9 BER level.