Unit for compensating the chromatic dispersion in a reconfigurable manner
AssigneePirelli Cavi e Sistemi S.p.A.
InventorsGiacomo Gorni, Luciano Socci, Marco Romagnoli
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Unit (100) comprising a portion of holey optical fibre (12) having a length Lc comprising a core region (13) and a cladding region (14), said cladding region (14) comprising, in turn, a plurality of holes passing through it longitudinally, said holes having a respective diameter and being spaced, two by two, according to a respective pitch, said unit comprising also a temperature adjusting device (16) for bringing and maintaining the holey optical fibre (12) at temperature values T selectable in a predetermined interval of temperatures Tx-Ty.
Claims27
Unit (100) comprising a portion of holey optical fibre (12) having a length Lc comprising a core region (13) and a cladding region (14), said cladding region (14) comprising, in turn, a plurality of holes passing through it longitudinally and arranged so as to lower a refractive index of the cladding region with respect to a refractive index of the core region in a way to induce guided propagation by the core region, said holes having a respective diameter and being spaced, two by two, according to a respective pitch, said unit being characterised in that it also comprises a temperature adjusting device (16) for bringing and maintaining the holey optical fibre (12) at temperature values T selectable in a predetermined interval of temperatures Tx-Ty.
An optical communication line (1) comprising
- a portion of optical transmission fibre (10) having a length Lt and a chromatic dispersion coefficient Dt at a wavelength λ;
- and
- a unit (100) comprising, in turn, a portion of holey optical fibre (12) having a predetermined length Lc and comprising a core region (13) and a cladding region (14), said cladding region (14) comprising, in turn, a plurality of holes passing through it longitudinally, said holes having a respective diameter and being spaced, two by two, according to a respective pitch,
- characterised in that
- said unit (100) also comprises a temperature adjusting device (16) for bringing and maintaining the holey optical fibre (12) at a temperature value Tz selectable in a predetermined interval of temperatures Tx-Ty;
- and in that
- the hole diameter and pitch, the length Lc, the temperature value Tz and the interval of temperatures Tx-Ty are selected so that the holey optical fibre (12) has such value of the chromatic dispersion coefficient Dc(Tz) at the preselected wavelength λ and at the temperature value Tz, as to compensate the chromatic dispersion of the optical transmission fibre portion (10).
An optical communication system (20) comprising
- a transmitting (22) suitable for providing an optical signal having a signal wavelength λ;
- an optical communication line (1), optically connected to said transmitting station (22), for transmitting said optical signal, said line (1) comprising at least one portion of optical transmission fibre (10), having a length Lt and a chromatic dispersion coefficient Dt at wavelength λ, and a unit (100) comprising, in turn, a portion of holey optical fibre (12) having a predetermined length Lc and comprising a core region (13) and a cladding region (14), said cladding region (14) comprising, in turn, a plurality of holes passing through it longitudinally, said holes having a respective diameter and being spaced, two by two, according to a respective pitch,
- a receiving station (24), optically connected to said optical communication line (1), for receiving said optical signal,
- characterised in that
- said unit (100) also comprises a temperature adjusting device (16) for bringing and maintaining the holey optical fibre (12) at a temperature value Tz selectable in a predetermined interval of temperatures Tx-Ty;
- and in that
- the hole diameter and pitch, the length Lc, the temperature value Tz and the interval of temperatures Tx-Ty are selected so that the holey optical fibre (12) has such value of the chromatic dispersion coefficient Dc(Tz) at the preselected wavelength λ and at the temperature value Tz, as to compensate the chromatic dispersion of the optical transmission fibre portion (10).
Use, for compensating the chromatic dispersion in a reconfigurable manner, of a unit (100) comprising a portion of holey optical fibre (12) having a length Lc comprising a core region (13) and a cladding region (14), said cladding region (14) comprising, in turn, a plurality of holes passing through it longitudinally, said holes having a respective diameter and being spaced, two by two, according to a respective pitch, said unit being characterised in that it also comprises a temperature adjusting device (16) for bringing and maintaining the holey optical fibre (12) at temperature values T selectable in a predetermined interval of temperatures Tx-Ty so that the holey optical fibre (12) takes desired chromatic dispersion values Dc(T).
Method for compensating chromatic dispersion in a reconfigurable manner, comprising the steps of
- a) providing a holey optical fibre (12) having a length Lc and comprising a core region (13) and a cladding region (14), said cladding region (14) comprising, in turn, a plurality of holes passing through it longitudinally, said holes having a respective diameter and being spaced, two by two, according to a respective pitch;
- b) bringing and maintaining said holey optical fibre (12) at a temperature T selectable in a predetermined interval of temperatures Tx-Ty so that the holey optical fibre (12) has a desired chromatic dispersion value Dc(T).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.