Third-Order-Reflective Hybrid Interleaver Based on Fabry-Perot Assisted Michelson Interferometer

We present the design and experimental demonstration of a 3rd-order-reflective hybrid interleaver based on Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity assisted Michelson interferometer (FPA-MI), in which the FP cavity consists of two cascade Sagnac loop reflectors (SLRs). Through comparison, it can be seen that the flatness and rectangularity of interleaver are increased with the increase of order. When the transmission coefficient of the variable SLR is 0.1975 or 0.98, the performance of the interleaver is the best under the lossless condition. The influence of loss and transmission coefficient on the flatness of the interleaver can be evaluated by the dispersion model when the loss is considered, and when the dispersion range is 0.911, the flatness of the interleaver is the best. The reflective FPA-MI interleaver, due to its superior performance, will provide a more promising application in dense wavelength division multiplexing optical communication systems.