Synthesis of optical PMD compensating filter using FIR lattice structure

Abstract

We investigate the potential of n-stage optical finite impulse response (FIR) lattice filter for compensating first order polarization mode dispersion (PMD). This compensation is based on minimizing the differential group delay (DGD) between the two principal state of polarization (PSP) within a given frequency range. The filter is realized by concatenating optical delay lines, directional couplers, and phase shifters in a lattice architecture. A numerical simulation is performed for an 8th and 12th order filters to demonstrate the impact of using higher order filters. The results show that DGD can be reduced significantly as we increase the order of the filter.