August 15, 2006 / Vol. 31, No.

16 / OPTICS LETTERS 2417

Tunable narrowband filter based on a combination

of Fabry–Perot etalon and volume Bragg
grating
J. Lumeau and L. B. Glebov
CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, P.O. Box 162700, Orlando,
Florida 32816-2700

V. Smirnov
OptiGrate, 3267 Progress Drive, Orlando, Florida 32826
Received April 4, 2006; revised May 26, 2006; accepted May 28, 2006;
posted June 1, 2006 (Doc. ID 69594); published July 25, 2006
A new type of tunable narrowband filter is proposed. This filter is a combination of a Fabry–Perot etalon,
which permits the selection of a comb of discrete narrow bands, and a high-efficiency rotating volume Bragg
grating recorded in photo-thermo-refractive glass, which permits tuning between the Fabry–Perot reso-
nances. A tunable filter for fixed wavelengths in the region of 1.5 ␮m with a spectral width of 220 pm
(FWHM), separation between channels of 800 pm, and throughput of 95% (losses ⬍0.2 dB) is demonstrated.
© 2006 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 090.7330, 350.2460.

Fabry–Perot etalons (FPEs) as narrowband tunable dressable wavelengths. In this case, the expressions
filters have been widely studied during the past sev- of the spectral width [full width at half-maximum
eral years. It is well known that the optical thickness 共FWHMFPE , ␦␭兲] and the free spectral range
of the cavity of a Fabry–Perot filter is directly propor- 共FSRFPE , ⌬␭兲 are7
tional to its central wavelength. To change its optical
thickness, the use of piezoelectric and electro-optic1 1 − R ␭02 ␭02
or thermo-optic2 material as a spacer to Fabry–Perot ␦␭ = , ⌬␭ = , 共1兲
filters has been proposed. However, this did not re- ␲冑R 2n0t 2n0t
sult in an easy or reliable solution. The first two ef-
fects lead only to very low tunability, and the last one
involves the use of very high temperatures. It has re- where R is the mirror reflectance; n0 and t are, re-
cently been demonstrated that the association of sev- spectively, the refractive index and the thickness of
eral solid-spaced FPEs3 enables the manufacturing of the cavity; and ␭0 is the central wavelength of the
tunable filters with fixed wavelength; however, the mirrors. For spacer thickness between 100 ␮m and
design of such filters for a specific application can be 5 mm the use of mirrors with a small number of lay-
complicated, and the rejection band and tunability ers (between 3 and 9) is enough to reach a very nar-
are limited to several tens of nanometers. We propose row bandpass (typically several tens or hundreds of
a new technique consisting of the combination of two picometers). Theoretically, a narrower bandpass
optical components: a FPE and a high-efficiency re- 共⬃1 pm兲 could be reached. However, because of the
flecting Bragg grating (RBG) recorded in photo- use of extended beams, the lowest FWHM that can be
thermo-refractive (PTR) glass4,5 (see Fig. 1). In this reached is limited by the flatness of each face of the
case, the FPE will define a comb of discrete narrow- window, the parallelism between them, and the di-
bands (modes) with desirable shape and bandwidth, vergence of the input beam. Therefore it is possible to
while the RBG, which has a high spectral and angu- demonstrate that the narrowest spectral width ac-
lar selectivity, will select only one of these modes. companied by high transmittance that can be practi-
The proposed FPE consists of a high-quality optical cally reached is about 10 pm.
window with both faces having identical coatings.
These dielectric mirror coatings are composed of al-
ternative quarter-wave layers of low (L) and high (H)
refractive indices. A quarter-wave layer is a layer
with optical thickness niti (ni being the refractive in-
dex of the layer and ti its thickness), which satisfies
the expression niti = ␭ / 4, where ␭ is the center wave-
length of the mirror.6
The transmission of a FPE is a discrete channel
spectrum (each resonance has a transmission equal
to one assuming no losses), and narrow lines are all
separated by gaps with constant width defined as the
free spectral range [(FSR) typically between 0.1 and Fig. 1. Tunable narrow bandpass FPB filter. TLS, tunable
10 nm]. These discrete resonances will define the ad- laser source; D, InGaAs photodiode.

0146-9592/06/162417-3/$15.00 © 2006 Optical Society of America

2418 OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 31, No. 16 / August 15, 2006

length of the Bragg grating can be tuned from

1552.52 to 1530.33 nm by only tilting it with an
angle of about ␪4 = 15° [Fig. 2(a)].
Moreover, it is important to note that for effective
selection of a single band from the comb produced by
the FPE, the spectral width of the RBG 共FWHMRBG兲
should satisfy the following conditions:
FWHMFPE 艋 FWHMRBG ⬍ FSRFPE . 共3兲

When these conditions are satisfied, the proposed fil-

ter should have a spectral bandwidth determined pri-
marily by the FPE, which can be very narrow, and a
broad rejection band determined by the RGB.
The transmission of the filter resulting from the in-
coherent combination of the RBG and the FPE is
shown in Fig. 2(b). The spectral selectivity of the FPE
is equal to ⬃220 pm. Simulations show that shifts of
the central wavelength of the filter can be made by
switching from one channel to another without a
change in spectral shape. The identity of all channels
is due to the fact that their shape is fixed by the FPE.
Moreover, even if the FPE presents a very bad rejec-
tion 共Tmin ⬇ 15% 兲, the final rejection will be highly
improved because of the high spectral selectivity of
the RBG. In Fig. 2(a), one can see side lobes next to
Fig. 2. Modeling of a combined FPB filter. (a) Reflection of
the main maxima of the volume Bragg grating. These
the RBG for different increasing inclinations of the RBG oscillations are typical for uniform Bragg gratings.8
(curve 1, ␪ = 3.06°; curve 2, ␪ = 4.13°; curve 3, ␪ = 10.79°; However, these side lobes can be eliminated by the
curve 4, ␪ = 14.70°) and transmission of the FPE (curve 5). use of gratings with special variations of the magni-
(b) Transmission of the assembled filter for different in- tude of the refractive index modulation, so-called
creasing inclinations of the RBG. Values of ␪ for curves 1–4 apodized gratings.9
are the same as in (a).

A FPE with the structure air/HLH/silica/HLH/air

centered at 193.10 THz 共1552.52 nm兲 is modeled. The
spacer is a 1.036 mm thick fused-silica window. Each
three-layer mirror stack (HLH) has a reflection coef-
ficient of ⬃43%. Figure 2(a) shows the transmission
(ratio of transmitted to incident intensity) for this
FPE with a spectral width of 220 pm and a FSR of
100 GHz 共⬃800 pm兲.
The second element used in our simulations is a
RBG. This component is obtained by the recording of
a sinusoidal refractive index modulation in a photo-
sensitive medium. The RBG that we considered has
the following parameters: 5 mm thickness, central
wavelength 共␭R兲 1552.52 nm defined as ␭R = ⌳ / 共2n0兲,
where ⌳ is the grating period and n0 is the refractive
index of the photosensitive medium. The dependence
of the reflection coefficient of such a grating on wave-
length is shown in Fig. 2(a). This RBG is a narrow-
band reflection filter, has a spectral selectivity of
320 pm (FWHM), and has a diffraction efficiency of
97%. The key point of this filter is that the central
wavelength of the RBG can be tuned by rotating the
Bragg grating and therefore changing the incidence
angle on the grating8:

冉 冉 冊冊
␭0 = cos asin
sin共␪兲
nPTR
␭R , 共2兲 Fig. 3. Experimental data for a FPB filter. (a) Reflection of
the RBG for different increasing inclinations of the RBG
(curves 1–4) and transmission of the FPE (curve 5). (b)
where ␪ is the angle of incidence and ␭0 is the reso- Transmission of the assembled filter for different increas-
nant Bragg wavelength. Therefore, the central wave- ing inclinations of the RBG (curves 1–4).
 August 15, 2006 / Vol. 31, No. 16 / OPTICS LETTERS 2419

Let us discuss the thermal stability of such a com- dence, and finally the transmittance of the combined
bined Fabry–Perot–Bragg (FPB) filter. The thermal FPB filter. The transmission and the reflection are
shift of the central wavelength of volume Bragg grat- defined as the ratio of the transmitted and the re-
ing in PTR glass at 633 nm is equal to about flected power to the incident power, respectively, and
7 pm/ K.10 For a thick fused-silica spacer of the FPE, each resonance of the FPE corresponds to a channel
the thermal dependence of the central wavelength is of the International Telecommunication Union grid.
⬃13 pm/ K. However, the FWHM of the RBG is The FPE shows resonances with more than 98%
larger compared with FWHM of the FPE [see Eq. transmittance of the incident beam. Then the rota-
(4)]. Consequently, for relatively low temperature tion of the RBG permits the tuning of the filter be-
variations within several degrees, the thermal de- tween channels of the FPE without any deterioration
pendence of the FPB filter will be determined by the of its transmission. Finally, the measured spectra are
thermal dependence of the spacer of the FPE. A pos- in perfect accordance with the theoretical results,
sible solution to reduce this dependence is to use an demonstrating 220 pm spectral width accompanied
air-spaced FPE instead of a solid-spaced FPE. In this with 95% throughput.
case this thermal dependence can be decreased to A tunable narrowband filter combining a reflecting
less than 1 pm/ K, and therefore a thermally very Bragg grating and a Fabry–Perot etalon is proposed.
stable filter can be manufactured. The advantage of such a configuration is that the
The setup used for the measurements is presented spectral width is defined by the etalon, while the vol-
in Fig. 1. It is composed of a tunable SANTEC TLS ume Bragg grating increases the rejection band to in-
220 laser source that can continuously change its finity. A tunable Fabry–Perot–Bragg filter with a
output wavelength from 1530 to 1590 nm with a spectral width of 220 pm, spectral steps of 800 pm,
1 pm step. The laser radiation is filtered by a single- and throughput of 95% is demonstrated.
mode fiber and coupled to a collimator. The 1 mm di- This work has been supported by NASA contract
ameter probing beam is sent through the FPE and NNL06AA42P. J. Lumeau’s e-mail address is
then reflected by the RBG. The RBG is fixed on a ro- [email protected].
tating stage that allows it to precisely control the
angle of incidence of the beam. The reflected beam is References
finally collected by an InGaAs photodiode, associated 1. M. Lequime, R. Parmentier, F. Lemarchand, and C.
with a data acquisition card, to process the acquired Amra, Appl. Opt. 41, 3277 (2002).
signals. It is seen in Fig. 1 that the system is de- 2. L. Domash, M. Wu, N. Nemchuk, and E. Ma, J.
signed in such a manner that no backreflection would Lightwave Technol. 22, 126 (2004).
affect the stability of the laser. 3. J. Floriot, F. Lemarchand, and M. Lequime, Opt.
Express 12, 6289 (2004).
A commercial 100 GHz 共800 pm兲 FPE centered at 4. O. M. Efimov, L. B. Glebov, and V. I. Smirnov, Appl.
1552.52 nm with a finesse of 3.8 共FWHM= 220 pm兲 Opt. 38, 619 (1999).
was used in this work. The RBG was manufactured 5. O. M. Efimov, L. B. Glebov, L. N. Glebova, and V. I.
at OptiGrate Company. The recording medium is a Smirnov, “Process for production of high efficiency
PTR glass. PTR glass is a multicomponent silicate volume diffractive elements in photo-thermo-refractive
glass doped with cerium, silver, and fluorine. A re- glass,” U.S. patent 6,586,141 (1 July 2003).
fractive index change is the result of a two-step pro- 6. H. A. Macleod, Thin-Film Optical Filter, 3rd ed.
cess of UV exposure followed by thermal develop- (Taylor & Francis, 2001), pp. 37–53.
ment. It appears as a precipitation of a crystalline 7. M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics, 7th ed.
(Cambridge U. Press, 1999).
phase inside the glass matrix, which results in a re-
8. H. Kogelnik, Bell Syst. Tech. J. 48, 2909 (1969).
fractive index decrease.4,5 The recorded reflecting 9. J. M. Tsui, C. Thompson, V. Mehta, J. M. Roth, V. I.
phase Bragg grating has a resonant wavelength of Smirnov, and L. B. Glebov, Opt. Express 12, 6642
1552.71 nm and an absolute diffraction efficiency of (2004).
97%. Figure 3 shows the transmission of the FPE, the 10. E. Rotari, L. Glebova, and L. Glebov, Proc. SPIE 5709,
reflectance of the RBG for different angles of inci- 379 (2005).