Novel applications of diffraction optical elements in optical fiber communications

Abstract

The implementation of the Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology programs has been expanding rapidly in many developed countries, notably in Japan and the US. FTTH technology requires the installation of optical fibers and optoelectronic transceivers into offices and private homes at a very competitive price with the benefit of high bandwidth. The distribution of information via optical fiber networks to private homes and multi-offices involves the important passive component, namely the optical beam splitter. Using Dammann gratings and inexpensive optical couplers, the incoming optical beam can be split into multiple equal-intensity beams for signal distribution networks. This project focuses on the design and fabrication of the Dammann grating and investigates the coupling of the beam lets into a packaged V-grooved 1x4 and 1x8 fiber arrays. The expansion of this technique into NxN fiber array has also been considered.