All-optical serial-to-parallel conversion of T-bits/s signals using a four-wave-mixing process

We report a simple method of a serial-to-parallel conversion that does not use a Fourier-transform system. The method is based on directly picking up a narrow temporal range of the skewed input signal by using a nonlinear wave mixing with the reference pulse. We show theoretically that the pick-up method is less influenced by the relaxation times of the nonlinear material. We demonstrate our method experimentally using a self-organized quantum-well material, and confirm that T-bits/s pulses are clearly converted into spatial patterns with conversion rates of 140 GHz.