Wavelength division multiplexed optical communication system having tunable multi-channel dispersion compensating filters

摘要

In accordance with the invention, a WDM optical communication system includes a new tunable multi-channel dispersion compensating filter (13) having low loss, low polarization dependence and capable of compensating many channels over a large wavelength range. In essence, the filter comprises an optical cavity (27) with a near 100% reflector (29) on one side and a variable partial reflector (19) on the other side. The device acts as a tunable all-pass filter. <IMAGE>