Reconfigurable multichannel optical add-drop multiplexers incorporating eight-port optical circulators and fiber Bragg gratings

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate two new strictly nonblocking reconfigurable multichannel optical add-drop multiplexers (RM-OADMs) using optical circulators and fiber Bragg gratings. By effectively using eight-port optical circulators, the new structures significantly reduce component count and insertion loss, and achieve good crosstalk performance. One of the new RM-OADMs potentially achieves the lowest insertion loss among existing RM-OADMs.