Compact colorless tunable dispersion compensator with 1000-ps/nm tuning range for 40-Gb/s data rates

A novel tunable dispersion compensator (TDC) with ±500-ps/nm tuning range and bandwidth support for 40-Gb/s signals is described. The TDC is constructed from a waveguide grating router (WGR) that provides very high spatial dispersion and a deformable cylindrical mirror for applying quadratic spatial phase across the dispersed wavefront. The WGR's 100-GHz free-spectral range (FSR) allows the device to simultaneously apply the same dispersion to all wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) channels.