Automatic Colorless Tunable Dispersion Compensator with Integrated Tunable Noise Filter

We integrate an improved colorless thermooptic-lens-based tunable dispersion compensator (tuning range of plusmn160 ps/nm) with a tunable amplified spontaneous emission filter on a single silica waveguide chip. We demonstrate fast automatic adjustment of the compensator

Introduction

Networks carrying >40 Gb/s data channels will likely require per-channel tunable dispersion compensators (TDC's). Additionally, networks that are optically reconfigurable will likely require the following three TDC characteristics: “colorless” operation (TDC can be used for any channel), tunable noise filter [to filter out preamplifier amplified spontaneous emission (ASE)], and relatively fast tuning (to minimize reconfiguration time).