Quickly tunable ultra-narrow filter via a metal film waveguide.

Abstract

The development of fast, efficient, and cost-effective tunable optical filters is a tireless pursuit of the goal in the field of optical signal processing and communications. However, the traditional filters have been limited by their complex structures, slow tuning speed, and high cost. To address this challenge, we present a tunable ultra-narrow bandpass filter, which is fabricated by a metal layer cladded in a high-parallelism and high-precision piezoelectric ceramic for an interlayer. Experimental results show a remarkable full width at half maximum of 51 pm and a fast response time of 800 ns. In addition, by cascading double filters, the wavelength of the output light has been fine-tuned from a Vernier effect. Moreover, we realize a tunable filter to select and output several ultra-narrow single peaks with 56% efficiency in the 2 nm range. Furthermore, it offers a wide tunable range, exceptional narrowband filtering performance, and fast piezoelectric response times. Hence, it is particularly well suited to applications requiring precise wavelength selection and control, opening new possibilities in the field of tunable optical filters.