Abstract

Motivation for this work arises from a critical need in future multiwavelength packet-switched data-communication networks for optical filters that are capable of microsecond tuning speed, as well as polarization insensitivity and low loss. Fiber Fabry-Perot tunable filters (FFP-TFs) have been used extensively in wavelength-division-multiplex (WDM), erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), and channel-switched data-communication research¹ because of their excellent optical and environmental performance. Piezoelectric or nematic liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot filters are typically reported to have millisecond tuning speeds, and to date the only microsecond-speed alternative has been acousto-optic filters. Here we report, for the first time to our knowledge, tuning speeds for miniature FFP-TFs with low-voltage multilayer piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) approaching one free spectral range (FSR) per microsecond.

© 1995 Optical Society of America