Cosine apodization of dual-resonance all-fiber acousto-optic tunable filters.

ABSTRACT

We experimentally demonstrate a novel cosine apodization technique for dual-resonance all-fiber acoustic-optic tunable filter. The technique is based on a hybrid control of input acoustic polarization state and circumferential fiber twist. We will show that intrinsic sidelobe spectra occurring between dual filtering bands are successfully suppressed through our approach, which will be also theoretically confirmed via our analytical and numerical studies. The results illustrate that the spectral positions of each resonance are tuned linearly and continuously by the fiber twist, and that overall sidelobe spectra between two resonances are suppressed regardless of fiber twist angle. The proposed scheme is useful to minimize cross talk between adjacent wavelength channels in optical sensor systems. We highlight that our approach is directly applicable to low-noise matched filtering.