Over 26-nm Wavelength Tunable External Cavity Laser Based on Polymer Waveguide Platforms for WDM Access Networks

We demonstrated a widely tunable hybrid-integrated external cavity laser on a polymer-based waveguide platform. The lasing wavelength was tuned over 26 nm by locally heating the surface-relief-type polymer waveguide Bragg grating fabricated by using the phase mask. The phase-control heater section was inserted between the laser diode and the Bragg grating for the fine wavelength tuning and the stable single-mode lasing. In the 100-GHz-spaced wavelength-division-multiplexing systems, the 1.25-Gb/s directly modulated data streams at each tuned 32 channel were successfully transmitted.     

Design and Simulation of a Narrow Passband Electro-Optical Tunable Filter with Band-pass and Band-rejection Output

An electro-optical tunable filter comprised of two paralleled identical long-period waveguide gratings is proposed in this paper. The filter has one input port and two separate output ports, outputting band-pass and band-rejection light respectively. Using poled electro-optical polymer material to fabricate its waveguide cores enable the filter’s tuning speed to approach nanosecond order. With the aid of long-period waveguide gratings, the tuning range of the filter is Λ times larger than the conventional electro-optical filters. We built up a model to design and simulate the proposed tunable optical filter. We investigate the relationship between the parameters of the long-period waveguide grating and the characteristics of the tunable filter, such as tuning range and FWHM. The simulation results show that the tunable optical filter can realize high-speed tuning in the wavelength range of 1530 nm to 1560 nm, and the FWHM width can reach 0.8 nm. Compared with the conventional optical filters, the results show that a high-speed widely tunable optical filter with narrow pass band can be achieved.     

Thermal tuning of chirped SOI sidewall grating for tunable wavelength, delay, and bandwidth

In this work, we design a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) sidewall grating with tunable wavelength, delay, and bandwidth through thermal tuning. Incorporating uniform sidewall corrugations and a linearly chirped rib waveguide, the thermo-optic effect imposed on chirped rib waveguide changes the effective refractive index, due to the resultant of the temperature gradient. Consequently, tunable wavelength, delay, and bandwidth in SOI sidewall grating are achieved. In the numerical simulations, the designed SOI grating is demonstrated with a tunable wavelength from 1 560.7 nm to 1 561.9 nm, a tunable delay from 0 to 38 ps, and a tunable bandwidth from 1 nm to 1.5 nm.     

Widely tunable multichannel wavelength conversion using multiple wavelength quasi-phase-matched LiNbO/sub 3/ waveguide

Widely tunable multichannel wavelength conversion using a multiple wavelength quasi-phase-matched LiNbO/sub 3/ waveguide is proposed. Simultaneous conversion of four-channel signals with a tunable range of more than 35 nm is successfully demonstrate for the first time.     

Widely Tunable Coupled-Ring-Reflector Filter Based on Planar Polymer Waveguide

A widely tunable coupled-ring-reflector filter based on compact polymer waveguide is fabricated and the characteristics are measured. The ring radii of two rings are slightly different, which are 150 and 156 m, to achieve wide tuning of 43 nm using a low heating current as small as 37 mA.     

Wide tuning range and low operating power AWG-based thermo-opticwavelength tunable filter using polymer waveguides

Two types of polymer thermo-optic wavelength tunable filter (TOWTF) have been developed, each with a pair of triangular phase shifters. One filter is designed for a large-scale WDM system (32 channels, 0.8 nm spacing), the other for a small-scale WDM system (10 channels, 0.8 nm spacing). The arrayed waveguide number is optimised thus reducing the operating power required by the filters. Moreover, both filters operated with a low crosstalk of <-25 dB     

Compact and tunable mid-infrared laser using QPM-LN waveguide and TLA

A compact and tunable difference frequency generation mid-infrared laser for gas sensing is developed using a quasi-phase-matched LiNbO₃ (QPM-LN) waveguide and a tunable laser diode array (TLA). The absorption spectra of methane from the -third- to -fifth-order around 3.3 mum are observed by tuning the QPM-LN waveguide temperature and the TLA wavelength. The absorption line width is investigated with high spectral resolution scanning and the result is compared with that calculated from the HITRAN database.     

Proposal of electrically tunable external-cavity laser diode

We propose and demonstrate a novel tunable external-cavity laser diode that simultaneously achieves rapid tuning rate and wide tuning range by electrical control. This contains new-type integrated laser diode, collimating lens, and diffraction grating mirror. The integrated laser diode consists of Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot laser diode and waveguide-type deflector, which can deflect the beam passing through the waveguide. By control of the current in the deflector region, maximum wavelength variation of 8.6 nm and sidemode suppression ratio of >35 dB were obtained.     

Diode-pumped and packaged acoustooptically tunableTi:Er:LiNbO3 waveguide laser of wide tuning range

Design, fabrication, and properties of an acoustooptically tunable Ti:Er:LiNbO₃ waveguide laser of up to 31-nm tuning range in the wavelength band 1530 nm<λ<1575 nm are discussed. The laser cavity is formed by an Au mirror and a dielectric mirror as output coupler, both vacuum-deposited on the polished waveguide endfaces. As tunable intracavity wavelength filter with zero frequency shift, two monolithically integrated single-stage acoustooptical TE-TM-mode converters are used together with two polarization splitters operated as TE- and TM-pass polarizers, respectively. The minimum threshold of about 54 mW (coupled) pump power is obtained at λ≈1561-nm emission wavelength for diode laser pumping at λ_p≈1480 nm. With about 110-mW coupled pump power, up to 320-μW output power is achieved; the emission linewidth is 0.3 nm     

Tunable All-Optical Wavelength Conversion of 160-Gb/s RZ Optical Signals by Cascaded SFG-DFG Generation in PPLN Waveguide

We report, for the first time, tunable all-optical wavelength conversion of 160-Gb/s return-to-zero (RZ) optical signals based on cascaded sum- and difference-frequency generation in a periodically poled LiNbO₃ waveguide. The distorted signals due to limited phase-matching bandwidth during conversion were compensated by spectral reshaping. We achieved error-free tunable wavelength conversion with a bit-error rate of less than 10^-9 for 160-Gb/s RZ signals in a 23-nm tuning range over the C-band     

Polarization-insensitive transition between sol-gel waveguide and electrooptic polymer and intensity modulation for all-optical networks

An intensity modulation using a hybrid electrooptic (EO) polymer/sol-gel straight channel waveguide, useful in the 1550-nm wavelength regime is demonstrated without using Mach-Zehnder interferometric waveguide. The sol-gel waveguide is selectively buried so that a vertical transition into and out of an EO polymer coated on the sol-gel waveguide is arranged. The throughput ratio for transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes of the light coupled out of the hybrid waveguide is improved up to 0.9 dB with the help of reduced birefringence of the EO polymer after corona poling. We show that the fabrication process of such hybrid-type waveguides enables production of a phase modulator operating at 1550-nm wavelength. The fabricated straight channel waveguide modulator exhibits stable- and high-intensity modulation efficiency (82%) using a simple cross-polarization setup after the polarization dependence is reduced. We demonstrate an all wet-etching process to fabricate polymeric EO modulators.     

Tunable wavelength converters of picosecond pulses based on periodically poled LiNbO3 waveguides

A tunable wavelength conversion between picosecond pulses is experimentally demonstrated by using cascaded sum- and difference-frequency generation (cSFG/DFG) in a periodically poled LiNbO3 (PPLN)waveguide. The pulsed signal with 40 GHz repetition rate and 1.57 ps pulse width is adopted. When the input signal and the first control wavelengths are kept at 1554.2 and 1532.5 nm, respectively, the output signal wavelength can be tuned from 1536.0 to 1545.2 nm as the second control wavelength varies from 1550.5 to 1541.0 nm. By varying the first control wavelength to satisfy the quasi-phase matching (QPM) condition for sum-frequency generation (SFG) and simultaneously adjusting the second control wavelength, the tunable output signal wavelength can also be obtained when the input signal wavelength is changed. In the experiment,the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise from the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is effectively suppressed by employing two narrow band tunable filters. Therefore, the wavelength down- and up-conversions are simultaneously observed.     

Tunable Er-doped Y-branched waveguide laser

A tunable Y-branched Er-doped glass waveguide laser is realized for the first time. The lasing wavelength can be controlled continuously within 2 nm by using a thermo-optic phase shifter     

Wavelength sensitive tapered coupler with anti-resonant waveguides

We describe a coupler that consists of two phase-mismatched polymer waveguides coupled together by a tapered AlAs/AlGaAs vertical cavity structure. At any particular wavelength, the light is transferred from one polymer waveguide to the other via the semiconductor cavity at a unique position along the waveguide. Thus, the length of the device determines the range of wavelengths transferred. In addition to a wavelength router, the structure could be useful for wavelength selective amplifiers or multiwavelength lasers. The concept is demonstrated in a passive structure with a resolution of about 1 nm     

Novel phase-tunable three-dimensional hollow waveguides with variable air core

We propose novel micromachined tunable waveguide devices based on hollow optical waveguides. The combination of hollow waveguides and mechanical movable elements gives us a large change in a propagation constant of guided waves in a hollow waveguides. We fabricated a three-dimensional (3-D) hollow waveguide and experimentally demonstrated the change of the propagation constant in the 3-D hollow waveguide with a variable air core. We observed the wavelength shift of 1.8 nm in a hollow waveguide resonator with a displacement of 6 /spl mu/m in an air core.     

Tunable sampled-grating DBR lasers with integrated wavelengthmonitors

We report on the design and development of a wavelength monitor for use with tunable semiconductor lasers. The device is based on two-mode interference in an asymmetrically excited waveguide that is coupled to a Y-branch splitter. The monitoring range of the device is 30 nm. The wavelength monitor is capable of operating over an input power range of 34 dB, and the waveguide detectors do not saturate at photocurrents as high as 1.2 mA. The sensitivity of the monitor is only 1.24 nm for an isolated device, but improves to 0.44 nm when it is integrated on chip with the laser     

可调谐氮化硅波导微环谐振腔滤波器研究

设计并制备了一种基于热光效应的集成可调谐氮化 硅(Si₃N₄)波导微环谐振腔滤波器,通过采用马赫-曾德干涉仪(MZI)构成的可调谐 耦合器控制耦合区耦合比,以实现滤波器消光比的调谐。设计并优化了微环谐振 腔的波导截面尺寸、弯曲半径和耦合区波导间隔等参数,并通过光刻、反应离子刻蚀(RIE )等工艺制备 了两种不同弯曲半径的Si₃N₄波导微环谐振腔。实验结果表明,本文器件在波长1550nm附近处的自由光谱 范围(FSR)为68pm,3dB带宽约为16pm,品质因子Q达到了9.68×10 4,消光比可调范围约为17dB。     

Study of WDM polymer planar curved waveguide couplers

A wavelength division multiplexer based on curved polymer planar waveguide is proposed. According to the coupled modetheory and the waveguide structure, the performance of the curved waveguide coupler (CWC) is analyzed. The results showthat CWC can accommodate wider multiplexing bandwidth than parallel straight waveguide coupler (SWC) due to thecompensation effect of the effective coupling length. The two variables, curvature radius and minimum spacing, increasethe design flexibility of the waveguide device. A 4-channel wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system based onCWC is designed. The deviation of the center wavelength, due to the errors of curvature radius and minimum spacingduring fabrication process, is investigated. The smaller the curvature radius and the minimum spacing are, the larger thecentral wavelength deviation caused by the error of the curvature radius and the minimum spacing is, which provides someuseful theoretical basis for the design and the fabrication of polymer waveguide devices.     

Tunable Wavelength Conversion of ps-Pulses Exploiting Cascaded Sum- and Difference Frequency Generation in a PPLN-Fiber Ring Laser

Tunable wavelength conversion of picosecond (ps)-pulses based on cascaded sum- and difference frequency generation is proposed and demonstrated by use of a fiber ring laser incorporating a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide and two parallel-arranged tunable filters (TFs). The pulsed signal with 40-GHz repetition rate and 1.57-ps pulsewidth is employed. No external pump and control sources are required in the wavelength converter. By properly adjusting two TFs to change the lasing pump and control wavelengths, flexible wavelength conversion from a changeable input signal wavelength to a variable output idler wavelength is achieved.     

Electro-optically tunable wavelength demultiplexer using depressed index waveguides

A novel configuration of an integrated optical tunable wavelength demultiplexer with a stable channel spacing is proposed. The structure consists of a three-mode depressed index diffused waveguide with single-mode input and output waveguides. The refractive index depression has been designed using experimental data of double diffusion of MgO on Ti:LiNbO/sub 3/ waveguides. The BPM simulation of the structure supports the feasibility of the device and shows a good wavelength tunability.<>