All-fiber wavelength-tunable acoustooptic switches based on intermodal coupling in fibers

In this paper, we demonstrate a novel all-fiber wavelength-tunable acoustooptic switch utilizing intermodal coupling in a two-mode fiber (TMF). Its all-fiber configuration consisting of a fiber acoustooptic tunable filter and a mode-selective coupler results in the low loss (<2 dB) operation. The operating bandwidth >50 nm, the switching time of 40 μsec, and the crosstalk of 20 dB were achieved. By controlling the design parameters of the two-mode fiber, the 3-dB bandwidth of the switched signal was varied from 2.5 nm to >35 nm. A novel all-fiber dynamic optical add-drop multiplexer is also demonstrated using two acoustooptic switches in series.