Abstract

Acousto-optic tunable filters (AOTF) on LiNbO₃ substrates have attracted considerable attention among the components for WDM communication systems for they broad tuning range together with a fast tuning speed [1]. The typical device structure we considered is shown in figure 1 and acts as an add-drop filter thanks to the acousto-optic interaction that converts the polarization of one of the WDM input channels. The AOTF characteristic parameters are the conversion efficiency, which depends mainly on the modal converter performances, and the notch peak value which depends also on the extinction ratio of the input and output polarization splitters and on the cross-talk effects between the two adjacent AO polarization converters.

© 2000 IEEE