Polarization insensitive silicon immersion grating based on total internal reflection.

We describe an immersion grating (IG) with both low polarization-dependent loss (PDL) and high diffraction efficiency. Our immersion grating consists of a silicon (Si) prism and a Si grating coated with dielectric film. We analyze the effect of the refractive index of dielectric film and clarify the refractive index ratio between a Si grating and dielectric film. Selecting an adequate material for the dielectric film, we design the diffraction efficiency of TM polarization without changing that of TE polarization. The simulation results for the optimized IG show a PDL of 0.2 dB and diffraction efficiency of -0.4 dB. A prototype with high dispersion power provides a low PDL of 0.6 dB, while maintaining a high diffraction efficiency of -0.4 dB.

Experimental demonstration of multi-degree colorless, directionless, contentionless ROADM for 127-Gbit/s PDM-QPSK transmission system.

We experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of a multi-degree colorless, directionless, and contentionless (C/D/C-less) ROADM node composed of high port count wavelength-selective switches and transponder aggregators using silica-based planar lightwave circuit technology. The experimental results show that the introduction of a C/D/C-less function to a multi-degree ROADM node induces no significant penalty in a 127-Gbit/s PDM-QPSK signal transmission.