This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project develops tunable dispersion compensators by planar glass waveguide technology. The buried ion-exchanged waveguides we propose to use enable the fabrication of low-loss waveguides with very low birefringence. The process is extremely simple and reproducible, which will facilitate the low-cost production of devices. The proposed design will eliminate the need for the expensive and lossy circulators used in many fiber-based designs. Successfully meeting the goals in this Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. It will also provide a stepping stone towards the development of integrated optic dispersion compensators suitable for use in fiber optic telecommunication systems. Anticipated Benefits/Commercial Applications: Successfully meeting the goals of the proposed project will facilitate further development of high-speed optical networks for data- and telecommunications. These networks have been critical in the recent, unprecedented growth in the U.S. economy, allowing the development of new technologies and services. High-speed data communications are critical to the sophisticated technology aspects of the U.S. defense.
Keywords: Ion-exchange, waveguide, dispersion, telecommunications, data communications
