Abstract

The acousto-optic filter (AOF) is becoming increasingly important in optical communication research because of its unmatched potential in densely-packed WDM systems. In comparison to the Fabry-Perot, their main competitor, AOFs have a larger tuning range-to-bandpass /ratio, are more than a thousand times faster, are free of hysteresis (a problem with all-fiber Fabry-Perots), are able to parallel process many wavelength channels at a time (the Fabry-Perot is a single-state device, unless ganged in a complicated and inherently lossy way) and are able to be configured as a 4-port switch

© 1992 Optical Society of America