METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR HIGH CHANNEL CAPACITY WAVE DIVISION MULTIPLEXER AND DE-MULTIPLEXER USING REFLECTIVE AND TRANSMISSION HOLOGRAPHIC METHODOLOGIES FOR OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS AND THE LIKE

摘要

A method for combining and separating multiple optical channels (1-n) in a highly efficient manner includes multiplexing (5) and de-multiplexing (5) a large number of optical communications channels onto a transmission media, either fiber based or over-the-air. The holographic recording medium used for this invention has a spectral bandwidth of between approximately 488 nm and 2000 nm, and the actual channel limitations will be imposed by the limitations of the transmission media or the optical network components, such as the Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFA) and the attenuation windows of the fiber itself. With the present invention, the number of channels that can be attained over a fiber facility is typically 10,000, with 0.03 nm channel spacing. The theoretical and achievable number of over-the-air channels with this invention will be approximately 300,000 at a channel width of three Ghz per channel. Over-the-air applications could be an in-building high data rate local area networks or out-door short distance high data rate links between buildings.