A tunable dispersion compensator with fixed bandwidth for WDM systems using a uniform FBG

Summary form only given. Chromatic dispersion is a critical limitation in reconfigurable WDM networks and high bit rate long haul transmission systems. Many solutions have been proposed for dispersion compensation. Some of the most promising approaches use chirped fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as the tunable compensator. However, most tuning methods result in a passband bandwidth change and/or a shift in the center wavelength of the passband. Such changes may cause severe crosstalk as well as limitation in channel spacing. Therefore, highly desirable features in a tunable dispersion compensator are a fixed bandwidth and a fixed passband center wavelength, to avoid interference from neighboring channels. We demonstrate a tunable dispersion compensator for WDM channels with a fixed bandwidth and no shift of the passband center wavelength during tuning.