Title :
A Liquid Crystal Tunable Wavelength-Interleaved Isolator With Flat Spectral Response
Author :
Huang, Zhang-Di ; Hu, Xi-Kui ; Li, Su-Shan ; Wu, Hao ; Hu, Wei ; Liang, Xiao ; Lu, Yan-qing
Author_Institution :
Nat. Lab. of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing Univ., Nanjing, China
Abstract :
A liquid crystal tunable bidirectional isolator is proposed. A wave plate is employed to realize a wavelength interleaving function. If it works as a full wave plate, the corresponding light only may pass along a specific direction while the opposite way is isolated. However, for wavelengths that the light experiences a half wave plate, the isolator´s passing direction is reversed. A liquid crystal cell is utilized to tune the isolator so that both the isolated wavelength and direction could be reconfigured. A 100-GHz channel-interleaved tunable bidirectional isolator is demonstrated with 30 dB isolation in both directions. The spectral response at ITU grids are further flattened by using a wave plate stacking technique.
Keywords :
channel spacing; liquid crystal devices; magneto-optical isolators; optical communication equipment; optical design techniques; optical retarders; optical tuning; opto-isolators; spectral analysis; wavelength division multiplexing; frequency 100 GHz; full wave plate; half wave plate; liquid crystal tunable bidirectional isolator; magneto-optical isolator; optical design; spectral response; wavelength division multiplexing; wavelength interleaving function; Crystals; Isolators; Optical attenuators; Optical fibers; Optical polarization; Interleaver; liquid crystal; optical isolator; wave plates;
Journal_Title :
Lightwave Technology, Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JLT.2010.2070057
