Dispersion compensation using only fiber Bragg gratings

Efficient and low-cost dispersion compensation is necessary to achieve usef ul transmission distances in optical communication systems at bit rates abo ve 10 Gb/s. In this paper, we present a novel method for dispersion compens ation that uses three fiber gratings in series. This method eliminates the requirement for an optical circulator, commonly used in grating-based dispe rsion compensators. As a result, our device will be inexpensive to fabricat e and have a low insertion loss. We present a theoretical model that predic ts how the efficiency of the device can be maximized. We also present exper imental results showing complete dispersion compensation for 30-ps pulses, broadened to 67 ps by propagating through 10 km of standard, singlemode fib er.