Sampled fiber grating for WDM signal queuing with picosecond time interval

Abstract A new sampled fiber grating scheme is investigated for WDM signal queuing in time domain. The queuing is aimed at achieving very short constant time intervals down to picoseconds (ps) for many wavelength channels by a single fiber device. Theory and modeling predict that a consistence of linear spectral profiles exists between reflectivity or transmission spectrum and time delay spectrum. A sampled fiber grating based on Gaussian beam writing is proposed to offer a large number of wavelength channels and time delays within an approximate linear profile. Results for simulating a Gaussian sampled fiber grating show that the time delay minima of 8 channels within a section of the spectral profile have an average time delay step of 2.83 ps and standard deviation of 7.4% from linearity. Fiber gratings were successfully written by Gaussian laser beam in fabrication. A Gaussian sampled fiber grating was measured for time delay spectrum of 4 wavelength channels. An average time delay step of 9.67 ps is obtained. Some issues and related analysis and discussion are given. Our preliminary experiment suggests that the sampled fiber grating scheme can achieve ps-time steps for WDM signal queuing such as high-resolution time delay lines.