Demonstration of channelized tunable optical dispersion compensator based on arrayed-waveguide grating and liquid crystal on silicon.

We propose and demonstrate a multi-channel tunable optical dispersion compensator (TODC) that consists of an arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) and liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS). By utilizing the AWG with a large angular dispersion and the LCOS with a flexible phase setting, we can construct a compact and flexible TODC that has a wide tuning range of chromatic dispersion. We confirmed experimentally that the TODC could realize channel-by-channel CD compensation for six WDM channels with a ± 800 ps/nm range and a 3 dB bandwidth of 24 GHz. We believe that the multi-channel operation of this TODC will help to reduce the cost and power consumption of high-speed optical transmission systems.