Optimisation of WDM demultiplexers

The authors investigate the design of a low-cost and high-performance wavelength multiplexing and demultiplexing element for use in high-density WDM networks. They show that the unique properties of a binary phase grating allow them to trade power in exchange for high bandwidth per port and low crosstalk. A maximum data capacity (over all ports) of 768 Gb/s in a 32 nm gain window, combined with a crosstalk per channel better than -40 dB in exchange for a 12 dB insertion loss penalty, is predicted.<>