Abstract

A cascaded system of two acousto-optical cells is proposed for equalization of multichannel optical signal satisfying coarse wavelength-division multiplexing standard. Two similar acousto-optical modulators for unpolarized light on the basis of 10 degrees-cut paratellurite crystals were used in a free-space gap of a fiber line. The system controlled intensity of several optical carriers in the spectral range from 1200 to 1700 nm. The device was tested in a four-channel regime of operation in the range 1510-1570 nm. Overall optical insertion losses did not exceed -2 dB and less than 1 W electric power per channel was necessary for -20 dB intensity attenuation of the signal in a continuous operation mode. Compensation for birefringence in paratellurite provided diffraction regime that was insensitive to polarization of light. Interchannel crosstalk was less than -10 dB.

Highlights

  • Development of optical communication networks with the use of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology required new types of spectral devices for control of multichannel light beams

  • Acousto-optical tunable filters (AOTFs) may not be directly used in Dense WDM networks because their passband is wider than the channel spacing

  • We developed a prototype of an AO equalizer for Coarse WDM (CWDM) optical networks

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Summary

Introduction

Development of optical communication networks with the use of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology required new types of spectral devices for control of multichannel light beams. Acousto-optical (AO) modulators are good candidates for spectral equalization in WDM systems because they can operate in a multifrequency mode: different optical channels are independently controlled by corresponding ultrasonic waves in the same crystal. These devices are compact and reliable and they provide a high operation rate and a low power consumption [2, 3]. We used a filtering configuration of anisotropic diffraction with polarization splitting in a modulator for unpolarized light [7] Former analysis of this scheme did not take into consideration inevitable splitting of the transmitted beam because of birefingence of the material.

Principle of operation
Design of the AO cells
System layout
Multichannel operation
Findings
Conclusion

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