Acousto-optic reconfigurable filter based on vector mode fusion in dispersion-compensating fiber

An acousto-optic reconfigurable filter (AORF) is proposed and demonstrated based on vector mode fusion in dispersion-compensating fiber (DCF). With multiple acoustic driving frequencies, the resonance peaks of different vector modes in the same scalar mode group can be effectively fused into a single peak, which is utilized to obtain arbitrary reconfiguration of the proposed filter. In the experiment, the bandwidth of the AORF can be electrically tuned from 5 nm to 18 nm with superposition of different driving frequencies. The multi-wavelength filtering is further demonstrated by increasing the interval of the multiple driving frequencies. The bandpass/band-rejection can also be electrically reconfigured by setting the combination of driving frequencies. The proposed AORF gains the feature of reconfigurable filtering types, fast and wide tunability, and zero frequency shift, which is advantageous for high-speed optical communication networks, tunable lasers, fast optical spectrum analyzing and microwave photonics signal processing.& COPY; 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

This article proposes and demonstrates an acousto-optic reconfigurable filter (AORF) based on vector mode fusion in dispersion-compensating fiber (DCF). The resonance peaks of different vector modes in the same scalar mode group can be effectively fused into a single peak, allowing for arbitrary reconfiguration of the filter. In the experiment, the AORF's bandwidth can be electrically tuned from 5 nm to 18 nm by superimposing different driving frequencies. The AORF also demonstrates multi-wavelength filtering and the ability to reconfigure between bandpass and band-rejection modes by setting the combination of driving frequencies.