Abstract

Birefringent wavelength-division multiplexers (BWDMs) have been described previously.^1,2 In general, any optical transmittance function which can be constructed from a discrete Fourier series of sine waves (of optical frequency) whose highest harmonic component is N times the lowest can be synthesized from a stack of N equal-thickness birefringent plates. The device is made polarization-insensitive by separating the two polarization components, processing them separately, and recombining them at the outputs.

© 1991 Optical Society of America