Abstract

Wavelength tunable optical filters are essential components for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) systems. An acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) is one of the most promising filters. Various kinds of polarization-independent AOTFs have been reported in recent years.^1-3 However, filtering wavelength range, with good sidelobe suppression, has been limited to a few tens of nanometers. In this paper, the author has demonstrated a polarization-independent AOTF, which operates over a wide tuning range (>110 nm) with high sidelobe suppression (>15 dB), for the first time.

© 1996 Optical Society of America