Design of high-performance all-fiber spectral filter with weighted coupling

Narrow-band and low-sidelobe all-fiber spectral filters are achievable with directional couplers constructed with W-index and step-index fibers. The sidelobe levels can be reduced significantly by properly weighting the coupling strength along the device. We provide numerical simulations in which the different weighting functions are obtained via a variable intercore separation. With a Gaussian function weighting, -38 dB transfer response sidelobes have been obtained, which is more than 29 dB reduction over the uniform coupling case. Some design rules for obtaining filters with desired bandwidths and coupling lengths are also given. These results can be very useful in the design of high-performance all-fiber filters for wavelength multiplexing.<
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