Design optimization of flattop interleaver and its dispersion compensation

The objective of this paper is to present a general strategy for design optimization of flattop interleavers, and dispersion compensation for the interleavers, in order to achieve superior optical performance. The interleaver is formed by two multi-cavity Gire-Tournois etalons (MC-GTE) in a Michelson Interferometer (MI). An interleaver that has m cavities in one etalon and n cavities in the other is called an mn-GTE interleaver. Our optimization strategy exploits the general flattop condition and the technique of ripple equalization. Any mn-GTE interleaver may be optimized. The spectral performance can be greatly improved by the optimization process. As an illustration, we present a comprehensive analysis for a 11-GTE and a 21-GTE interleaver. The analytical expressions for flattop conditions, peak and trough positions are derived for optimization. The optimal performance of the interleavers can be controlled by the reflection coefficients and the parameters m and n. To achieve low-dispersion mn-GTE flattop interleavers, we propose to use one additional MC-GTE as a dispersion compensator to compensate for the chromatic dispersion. The analytical expressions of group delays and chromatic dispersions for an MC-GTE interleaver are derived. The optimization strategy of dispersion-ripple equalization is explained. The results show that the dispersion performance can be tailored by changing the reflection coefficients of the MC-GTE, and the dispersion and bandwidth can be enhanced by increasing the number of cavities of the MC-GTE. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America