Design and performance of free-space concave grating demultiplexers for ultrawideband WDM networks

The design methodology and the simulated performance in terms of coupling efficiency and crosstalk for three different types of demultiplexers, constructed by means of holographic concave gratings, are presented. In-plane and out-of-plane geometries are discussed and a parameter sensitivity (tolerance) analysis is presented. These devices are tailor made for three different network types: access (1000 wavelength channels at 2.5 Gb/s), metropolitan (500 wavelength channels at 10 Gb/s), and core (80 wavelength channels at 80 Gb/s). The simulated performance reveals that these devices could play a key role in future multiterabit networks.