| Abstract: | A new kind of tunable optical filter is proposed for DWDM optical communication application. It is based on cascaded polarization interference filter (PIF). The period and bandpass width of each PIF are decided by its optical path difference between o-ray and e-ray (OPDOE). When their OPDOEs are proportionately designed, the tuning range and bandpass width depend on OPDOE in the first and the last PIF, respectively. The tuning range, bandpass width and crosstalk are independent each other. The crosstalk is related to the OPDOE ratios among PIFs and can be suppressed by designing the PIF's 15 × 2N-7 × l1, 10 × 2N-6 × l1 and 2N-2 × l1 from the first to the last. This suggested OPDOEs can yield -50-dB crosstalk for any tuning range and bandpass width. The insert loss is less than i dB. As its loose alignment requirement, there is no limitation on cascaded PIF number. When 11 PIFs are cascaded, it can achieve 170-nm tuning range, -50-dB crosstalk, bandpass width applicable to 25-GHz channel spacing and 1 dB insert loss. |
