Digitally tunable wavelength filter and laser

Author

Parker, M.C. ; Mears, R.J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Eng., Cambridge Univ., UK

Volume

8

Issue

8

fYear

1996

Firstpage

1007

Lastpage

1008

Abstract

A novel nonmechanical, digitally tunable, polarization insensitive and optically transparent wavelength filter using holograms electro-optically written on a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) spatial light modulator (SLM) has been constructed and operated to tune to discrete wavelengths spaced by 1.3 nm. The filter has been incorporated in a ring laser which is tunable over a range of 38.5 nm across the erbium window, giving output powers of 10 mW. Both wavelength filter and tunable laser are suitable for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) applications.

Keywords

ferroelectric liquid crystals; holography; laser tuning; light polarisation; liquid crystal devices; optical communication equipment; optical filters; ring lasers; spatial light modulators; transparency; wavelength division multiplexing; 10 mW; WDM; digitally tunable wavelength filter; discrete wavelengths; erbium window; ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulator; nonmechanical digitally tunable polarization insensitive optically transparent wavelength filter; output powers; ring laser tuning; tunable laser; wavelength division multiplexing; wavelength filter; Digital filters; Ferroelectric materials; Laser tuning; Lasers and electrooptics; Optical filters; Optical modulation; Optical polarization; Ring lasers; Tunable circuits and devices; Wavelength division multiplexing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.508719

Filename

508719