A compact all-fiber PDL-compensated acoustooptic wavelength monitor

A compact all-fiber acoustooptic wavelength monitor with passive polarization-dependent loss (PDL) compensation is demonstrated. A Sagnac loop interferometer is used to compensate the intrinsic PDL, and hence, the polarization-dependent wavelength shift of the fiber acoustooptic tunable filter (AOTF). This increases the extrinsic wavelength accuracy of the device to 0.05 nm, a three-fold improvement from a previously reported uncompensated device. The relaxation in the PDL specifications for the AOTF also results in a reduction of fiber length from 38 to 14 cm.