Two-Dimension Dispersion Waveshaper Scheme With Hyperfine Bandwidth Management

Traditional wavelength selective switch (WSS) or waveshaper (WS) commonly utilizes diffraction grating as dispersive element to realize GHz-level bandwidth management. However, the gratings with highly dense grooves have a harsh condition for processing, particular in the infrared region. This study proposes a two-dimension (2D) dispersion WS which combines a virtually imaged phased array (VIPA) and a grating as disperser. Compared to the single grating configuration with the same groove density, the 2D configuration in this design has a dispersion over 9 times larger than the former at experiment. Owing to the hyperfine spectral resolution of 2D dispersion and the specially designed holograms loaded on Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS), the 100 MHz-level bandwidth management and flexible waveform shaping are achieved. We also experimentally demonstrate the signal filtering and switching of 2D WS in intensity-modulation direct-detection (IM/DD) optical communication systems. Additionally, the Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) and 16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16QAM) signals with different wavelengths, modulated rates and optical signal-to-noise ratios (OSNRs) operated at this WS, and the results of coherent detection show a high quality. It indicates that the hyperfine bandwidth management and flexible waveform shaping of 2D dispersion WS has the potential application in all-optical network (AON) to improve the spectral utilization efficiency and used for the complex information exchange at networks.