A non-return-to-zero (NRZ) to pseudo-return-to-zero (PRZ) converter consisting of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) is proposed, by which the enhancement of clock frequency component and clock-to-data suppression ratio of the NRZ data are evidently achieved. All-optical clock recovery from NRZ data at 10 Gb/s is successfully demonstrated with the proposed NRZ-to-PRZ converter and a mode-locked SOA fiber laser. Furthermore, NRZ-to-RZ format conversion of 10 Gb/s is realized by using the recovered clock as the control light of terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexer (TOAD), which further proves that the proposed clock recovery scheme is applicable.

All-optical clock recovery from non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data using an semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) loop mirror and a mode-locked SOA fiber laser is firstly schematically explained and experimentally demonstrated at 10 Gb/s. Furthermore, the pulse quality of the recovered clock is effectively improved by using a continuous-wave (CW) assist light in the gain region of SOA, through which the amplitude modulation is reduced from 57.2% to 8.47%. This scheme is a promising method for clock recovery from NRZ data in the future all-optical communication networks.