Long resonator micromachined tunable GaAs-AlAs Fabry-Perot filter

We present novel concepts for tunable optical filters. Long resonant cavities of about 30-/spl mu/m length have been realized with two-chip designs. GaAs technology has been applied to filters that are designed for the use in dense wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) at wavelengths around 1550 nm. A finesse of 46.7, a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 1.2 nm and electrostatic tuning over a range of 103 nm with an applied voltage of 35 V has been achieved. An alternative tuning concept that allows to tune the resonator length 4 /spl mu/m by heating Ni-Cr resistors placed on the suspending beams of a membrane with an applied voltage of 2.7 V has been realized.     

High-performance all-fiber Fabry-Perot filters with superimposed chirped Bragg gratings

The performance of large-band Fabry-Perot (FP) filters is investigated through numerical simulations and experimental realization. The limitations of the filters are studied theoretically to determine the impact of the chirped fiber Bragg grating (FBG) imperfections on spectral variations of the free spectral range (FSR), finesse, transmission loss, and polarization dependent loss (PDL). All-fiber FP devices are realized experimentally with finesse reaching 240 and covering a spectral band of 26 nm. For finesse up to 80, the filters present acceptable performance in terms of spectral variations of FSR (/spl plusmn/3%), finesse, attenuation (/spl plusmn/0.5 dB), PDL (<0.2 dB), and insertion loss (<3 dB).     

Tunable polymer optical add/drop filter for multiwavelength networks

We present a polymer optical add/drop filter with a channel cross-talk of -18.5 dB, a free spectral range of 12.8 nm and a channel spacing of 400 GHz (4 channels) as well as a tunable optical filter with a free spectral range of 50 nm. Both filter designs are based on a synthesis which provides the minimum number of filter stages for a given channel crosstalk and number of channels. Wavelength tunability over the entire free-spectral range (FSR) is demonstrated with applied heating powers of 500 mW. For the narrow bandwidth filter we used a fluorinated high temperature stable polymer as the waveguiding material, which has proven to exhibit losses as low as 0.25 dB/cm at a wavelength of 1.55 /spl mu/m.     

Polarisation selective all-fibre Fabry-Perot filters with superimposed chirped Bragg gratings in high-birefringence fibres

Periodic highly birefringent filters with 50 and 100 GHz free spectral range and finesse of up to 20 are demonstrated. With a polarisation peak separation of 25 GHz, the polarisation crosstalk was measured to be less than -16 dB.     

High-finesse large band Fabry-Perot fibre filter with superimposedchirped Bragg gratings

Filters with 100 GHz free spectral range (FSR) and finesse up to 16 are demonstrated over the 1525 to 1583 nm band. The photoinduced birefringence results in a polarisation-dependent spectral response. Finesse and FSR uniformity are addressed     

Polarization-independent and ultra-high bandwidth electroabsorption modulator in multiquantum-well deep-ridge waveguide technology

Electroabsorption modulators with polarization-independence of transmission (TE/TM sensitivity <0.4 dB at 1550 nm) over a wide wavelength range from 1540-1560 nm have been realized using tensile-strained InGaAs and InGaAsP quantum wells. Both designs show 42-GHz modulation bandwidth with a high bandwidth-to-drive-voltage ratio of >23 GHz/V. Polarization insensitivity of modulator transmission and chirp is demonstrated. Technical realization has been done in ridge waveguide technology with low-pressure MOVPE, reactive ion etching (RIE) for semiconductor etching and polyimide for planarization.     

Interleave filter based on coherent optical transversal filter

The principle of the transversal interleave filter previously proposed as a novel class of interleave filter is described. The principle of a conventional 1 /spl times/ 1 coherent optical transversal filter is reviewed. Then, the fundamental operating principle and the three design conditions required for the novel interleave filter are explained. As examples, three types of filter design, namely 1) a general/transposed design; 2) an asymmetric design; and 3) a symmetric design, are presented, and their interleave filter characteristics are discussed. The designed interleave filters with a free spectral range of 100 GHz was fabricated using silica-based planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology. The asymmetric design achieved a wide 3-dB passband width of 55 GHz, whereas an ordinary lattice-form interleave filter could not realize a 3-dB passband width larger than 50 GHz because of the halfband property. A small polarization-dependent wavelength shift of 0.01 nm is demonstrated by inserting a single half waveplate in the middle of the circuit. The general/transposed and symmetric designs realized a practical interleave filter with a boxlike transmission spectrum and low chromatic dispersion. The two-stage interleave filter formed by cascading the general and transposed designs has the advantages of a low crosstalk of less than -46 dB and a wide 20-dB stopband width of 40 GHz, whereas the single-stage symmetric design has an extremely small chromatic dispersion of within /spl plusmn/5 ps/nm. In addition, the design concept to realize a 1/spl times/N transversal interleave filter is extended.     

High-finesse laterally coupled organic-inorganic hybrid polymer microring resonators for VLSI photonics

We produced laterally coupled optical microring resonators having high finesse (F/spl sime/17 at 1.5-/spl mu/m wavelength) using a two-step patterning technique based on optical photolithography. The technique used allows us to separately control the height of both ring and port waveguides and structure submicrometer gaps. The resonance spectrum of microrings with radii of 50 /spl mu/m made of an organic-inorganic hybrid polymer have an extinction ratio of about 12 dB and a filter bandwidth /spl delta//spl lambda//spl sime/0.28 nm (full-width at half-maximum) at a wavelength /spl lambda/=1547.78 nm. We show that the resonances can be thermooptically tuned by 0.2 nm//spl deg/C, thus allowing us to modulate the transmission of the through port signal.     

Tunable polymer double micro-ring filters

Based on the vernier effect, widely tunable polymer double micro-ring filters using the thermooptic effect or the electrooptic effect are demonstrated. A tuning enhancement factor of 40 was achieved at wavelengths near 1550 nm. The tuning rate for the thermooptic device is 120 GHz/mW and for the electrooptic device is 120 GHz/12 V. A tunable laser with a side-mode suppression ratio greater than 30 dB was demonstrated using this filter and erbium-doped fiber amplifier gain. Thermal tuning over 35 nm was achieved.     

1300-nm pulsed fiber lasers mode-locked by purified carbon nanotubes

For the first time, we demonstrate a novel passively mode-locked fiber laser operating at 1300 nm using purified single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as a saturable absorber. The saturable absorber incorporates diameter-controlled CNTs with peak absorption /spl sim/1300 nm, guaranteeing mode-locking over the same wavelength region. The ring laser uses praseodymium-doped fiber as a gain medium. The pulse repetition rate is 3.18 MHz, and the spectral half-width is 0.15 nm. Dual-wavelength mode-locking is also demonstrated with a channel spacing of 1.1 nm.     

A high efficient 820 nm MOS Ge quantum dot photodetector

A Ge quantum dot photodetector has been demonstrated using a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) tunneling structure. The oxide film was grown by liquid phase deposition (LPD) at 50/spl deg/C. The photodetector with five-period Ge quantum dot has responsivity of 130, 0.16, and 0.08 mA/W at wavelengths of 820 nm, 1300 nm, and 1550 nm, respectively. The device with 20-period Ge quantum dot shows responsivity of 600 mA/W at the wavelength of 850 nm. The room temperature dark current density is as low as 0.06 mA/cm/sup 2/. The high performance of the photodetectors at 820 nm makes it feasible to integrate electrooptical devices into Si chips for short-range optical communication.     

Tunable wavelength filter using nano-sized droplets of liquidcrystal

An electrically tunable optical filter has been developed that uses a polymer containing fine droplets of nematic liquid crystal as the active cavity in a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI). This FPI filter, whose finesse was 62, had a free spectral range of 37 nm in the 1.55-μm range with a full-width at half maximum of 0.6 nm and a transmission loss of 2.4 dB. The polarization dependent loss was smaller than 0.17 dB. The transmitted peak wavelength decreased with an electric field. This resulted in a tuning range of 10 nm at 300 V. The switching time was about 370 μs     

Cascaded resonant-grating filters: experimental results on lowered sidebands and narrowed lines

Cascaded resonant grating filters are experimentally characterized. The levels to which cascaded resonant filters yield lowered sidebands and narrowed linewidths, as compared with individual filters, are measured. For example, four cascaded filters provide experimental sideband levels at -47 dB over a 50-nm wavelength range, a spectral linewidth of 0.43 nm, with an insertion loss of 3.7 dB.     

Demonstration of a 15×15 arrayed waveguide multiplexer on InP

By interconnecting two star couplers with a waveguide grating, the authors built a monolithic 15×15 multiplexer on InP. The grating order of 148 gives a free spectral range of 10.5 nm (1.3 THz) and a channel spacing of 0.7 nm (87 GHz) at 1550 nm wavelength. A crosstalk between adjacent channels of less than 18 dB and a residual crosstalk of less than 25 dB were obtained. The on-chip insertion loss is typically 2-4 dB     

High pumping-efficiency L-band erbium-doped fiber ASE source using double-pass bidirectional-pumping configuration

We present a high pumping-efficiency L-band (1565/spl sim/1605 nm) erbium-doped fiber amplified spontaneous-emission (ASE) source using a double-pass bidirectional pumping configuration. Such design gives rise to relaxing the danger in resonant lasing, allowing high pumping-power operation, and therefore, enhancing the pumping-conversion efficiency. The ASE source has a mean wavelength of 1584.3 nm, a spectral linewidth of 41.6 nm, and an output power of 71.8 mW with a ripple of 0.5 dB without using any external spectral filters. The high pumping efficiency of 42.2% is achieved.     

Quasicontinuous tunable fiber-ring laser applied as localoscillator in an absolute calibrated spectrometer for WDM systems

A special tunable fiber-ring laser is introduced. With this laser as local oscillator, a calibrated optical spectrometer was realized, which allows the determination of the wavelength of all transmitters of a wavelet division multiplexing (WDM) system in one sweep. The system is based on a fiber ring laser including a high finesse Fabry-Perot resonator with a high free spectral range and a 1-km-long dispersion shifted fiber. To achieve a high wavelength determination accuracy two auxiliary signals are generated: one with a Krypton filled absorption tube and another with a simple, silica based, periodical filter. With that, the wavelength of every transmitter of a WDM signal can be determined with an absolute frequency accuracy of better than ±0.8 GHz in a range of 1527-1562 nm in one sweep. The relative frequency accuracy is better than ±0.3 GHz     

Widely tunable long-period gratings fabricated in polymer-clad ion-exchanged glass waveguides

Long-period-grating filters were fabricated in polymer-clad ion-exchanged BK7 glass waveguides. The transmission spectra of the filters exhibited strong polarization dependence. A contrast as high as 25 dB at the resonance wavelength was obtained. The temperature sensitivity of the filters was measured to be /spl sim/9.0 nm//spl deg/C, which allows potential wavelength tuning over the entire S+C+L band of /spl sim/180 nm with a temperature control over a range of /spl sim/20/spl deg/C.     

Low-loss singlemode amorphous silicon waveguides

Amorphous silicon waveguides were obtained by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition and anisotropic plasma etching. Rectangular multimode waveguides as well as singlemode ridge waveguides were fabricated. Scattered light measurements at 1550 nm (1300 nm) wavelength showed a low propagation loss of /spl les/0.5 dB/cm (1.6 dB/cm) for multimode waveguides and 2.0 dB/cm (5.0 dB/cm) for highly-confined singlemode waveguides.     

Silica-based finesse-variable ring resonator

A finesse-variable ring resonator with a free spectral range of 2.5 GHz is demonstrated using silica-based optical waveguides. The finesse is controlled with a coupling-ratio-variable coupler, which is composed of a symmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometer and thermooptic phase shifters. The finesse of the resonator is changed continuously from 6 to 27     

Large wavelength shifts in UV-exposed 3 dB and WDM fused taperfibre couplers

The spectral response of 3 dB and 1300/1550 nm wavelength division multiplexing fused taper fibre couplers can be shifted by over 100 nm by exposing the entire coupler with intense UV light at a wavelength of 193 nm and without prior hydrogenation. There is no discernable increase in excess loss. The major contribution to these shifts for these couplers originates in the down- and up-taper regions