LCoS-based programmable spectrum cutter with programmable and reconfigurable filtering shape for software defined optical network

A 1x9 multiport spectrum cutter based on liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is proposed, fabricated, and demonstrated. As an LCoS-based optical processor, the spectrum cutter can realize fine control of filter attenuation (0 similar to 30dB range) and phase (0 similar to 2 pi) characteristics with minimum bandwidth of 15 GHz and maximum bandwidth of 5 THz across the C-band. The optical transfer function can be software-specified by the user, which allows the generation of various, complex filters with filtering bandwidth and center frequency of 6.25 GHz resolution. Experimental results show that it applies to programmable and reconfigurable filter, flexgrid wavelength selective switch (WSS) and emulation of non-standard optical components for software defined optical network (SDON) with significant performance.