High-speed liquid crystal fiber Fabry-Perot tunable filter

Abstract

We report a liquid-crystal fiber Fabry-Perot tunable filter (LC-FFP-TF) with fast tuning (<33 μs) over a 0.4-12 nm wavelength range centered at 1550 nm, at a temperature of 35/spl deg/C, using a commercially available electroclinic LC material, BDH764E. Typically, the fall time of the LC-FFP-TF is over an order of magnitude shorter than the rise time. For the first time to our knowledge, switching between two discrete wavelengths was demonstrated using an LC-FFP-TF.