Planar lightwave circuit dispersion equalizer

Abstract

The authors report an integrated-optic dispersion equalizer fabricated on a planar lightwave circuit (PLC). This PLC dispersion equalizer is composed of several asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometers cascaded in series. The dispersion equalizer has a high degree of design flexibility and can compensate for both normal and anomalous fiber dispersions at any center wavelength. Moreover, the equalizer can be applied to WDM transmission systems. This equalizer employing five asymmetrical interferometers is fabricated and its measured dispersion values are +834 and -1006 ps/nm. The effectiveness of the equalizer is demonstrated in a 2.5 Gb/s transmission experiment with a 1.3 /spl mu/m zero-dispersion fiber at 1.55 /spl mu/m. Also, its performance is evaluated theoretically.