Methods and apparatuses to provide a tunable chromatic dispersion compensator

An apparatus comprising:

• a chromatic dispersion compensation module that includes
• an input fiber;
• an output fiber, the input fiber adjacent to the output fiber;
• a lens, the input fiber to route an optical signal to the lens;
• a first etalon resonator having reflectors with wavelength-dependent reflectivity and a variable optical length to induce a wavelength-dependent delay into the optical signal, the lens to route the optical signal to the first etalon resonator;
• the first etalon resonator to route the optical signal to the output fiber through the lens;
• and
• a temperature control device affixed to the first etalon resonator to control temperature of the first etalon resonator independent of any other etalon resonator;
• and
• a series of cascadedly connected etalon resonators, wherein each etalon resonator in the series of etalon resonators has a front reflector with a different reflectivity in order to optimize a flatter dispersion slope and a higher magnitude of dispersion induced on each wavelength per etalon.

An system, comprising:

• a series of cascaded chromatic dispersion compensation modules, a first chromatic dispersion compensation module that includes
• an input fiber having a first core with a center;
• an output fiber having a second core with a center, the input fiber adjacent to the output fiber, spacing between the center of the first core and the center of the second core is affixed to less than one hundred and twenty microns;
• a lens, the input fiber to route an optical signal to the lens;
• and
• a first etalon resonator having reflectors with fixed reflectivity and a variable optical length to induce a wavelength-dependent delay into the optical signal, the lens to route the optical signal to the first etalon resonator;
• the first etalon resonator to route the optical signal to the output fiber through the lens.

An apparatus, comprising:

• means for inducing wavelength-dependent delays in to an optical signal;
• means for collimating the optical signal;
• means for routing the optical signal through a series of an etalon resonators in a first chromatic dispersion module;
• means for tuning the resonant center wavelength of the etalon resonator by adjusting optical path length of the etalon resonator;
• means for routing, via a non-normal angle of incidence, the optical signal to an output, wherein the non-normal angle of incidence incurs a figure of merit of less than two tenths;
• and
• means for routine the optical signal through a second chromatic dispersion module in series with the first chromatic dispersion module.