Large Chromatic Dispersion in a Planar Tapered ARROW Waveguide

摘要

We describe a planar waveguide structure with an air core and a slightly tapered silica etalon that accomplishes periodic chromatic dispersion compensation by using the properties of an antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) . Theory predicts resonance peaks in the dispersion spectrum. With a 40-micron air core diameter and a cladding thickness tapering from 215.0 to 216.25 microns, a free spectral range of 4.93 nm was measured, in agreement with a 4.95 nm calculation. Dispersion measurements with an optical network analyser gave a dispersion of -24 ps/nm.cm, which is about five orders of magnitude higher than the dispersion of standard communications fibres. This result is in excellent agreement with the value -27 ps/nm.cm calculated with the help of the RSoft simulation software.