Tunable compensation of channel degrading effects using nonlinearly chirped passive fiber Bragg gratings

Several channel-degrading effects are present in nonstatic and dynamically reconfigurable wavelength-division-multiplexed systems and networks due to various types of dispersion in the optical transmission fiber. These effect s must be addressed by tunable methods so that data signals do not fade wit h time. The relevant effects for which we demonstrate tunable compensation include: chromatic dispersion accumulated in a single channel and in multip le channels, polarization mode dispersion, and periodic RF power fading, We utilize a nonlinearly chirped fiber Bragg grating that provides a dispersi ve function that can be varied continuously by tuning a single mechanical s tretching element.