Dispersion compensating discrete phase filters

A method of making a dispersion compensating phase filter for compensating for chromatic dispersion accumulated by a telecommunication optical signal when travelling in a dispersive line, the method comprising:

• a) determining a target dispersion compensating phase profile of a channel of the telecommunication optical signal, said determining comprising:
• i. discretizing a phase profile of the dispersive line into a plurality of frequency sub-bands over a bandwidth of the channel, each frequency sub-band having a width selected in view of compensating the chromatic dispersion;
• ii. for each of said frequency sub-bands, computing an average phase value of the phase profile of the dispersive line;
• iii. converting each average phase value to an equivalent 2π-bound phase value for each of said frequency sub-bands;
• and
• iv. constructing the target dispersion compensating phase profile across the full bandwidth of the channel as the equivalent 2π-bound phase value over each frequency sub-band;
• b) determining spatial parameters of a physical spectral filtering structure having a spectral filtering phase profile corresponding to the target dispersion compensating profile;
• and
• c) manufacturing said physical spectral filtering structure using said spatial parameters.