Simulation of an AWG structure with thermal lens for adaptive dispersion compensation using a BPM algorithm

In this article we explain how we calculated numerically the transfer function of a cascaded arrayed-waveguide-grating (AWG) structure with a tunable thermal lens for adaptive compensation of chromatic dispersion. The emphasis lies on the propagation through the thermal lens with a parabolic refractive-index profile, where we used a BPM algorithm with a Pade-2-2-approximation. The refractive-index profile in turn, results from the calculation of the temperature profile, produced from a number of parallel metal stripes in which electrical power is converted into heat.