Gain-Flattening Filters Using Dielectric Multilayer Thin Filmby You Mimura *, Kazuyou Mizuno *, Yoshitaka Iida *,Kouji Masuda *, Takahiro Itoh * and Yasuhiro Nishi *In wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), which is fast emerging as mainstream technology to satisfy increased demand for fiber-optic communications,the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is a key device. Gain-flattening filters are used to produce flat gain characteristics within the bandwidth of the EDFA, and a number of methods havebeen proposed. The authors have developed a series of gain-flattening filter chips based ondielectric multilayer thin film, and by optimizing the thin film design, optical thickness control techniques and thin film deposition conditions to the requirements of the filters, have succeeded in
producing gain-flattening filters for EDFAs with a gain of 13 dB, which have a flatness of 0.19 dB
and an insertion loss of less than 0.1 dB.

ABSTRACT1.

INTRODUCTION

The demand in recent years for greater capacities andhigher speeds in fiber-optic communications has led to thecommercial implementation of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) technology in which optical signals of anumber of different wavelengths are superimposed fortransmission. The erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)
serves as a key device in WDM systems. One of theadvantages of the EDFA is that its bandwidth of amplification is comparatively wide, allowing the optical signals
within the bandwidth to be batch-amplified, and recently
its amplification bandwidth has been increasing.
In WDM systems the power deviation between the optical signals of different wavelengths results in a decreasein transmission distance and in the wavelength range oftransmittance, requiring that EDFAs have a gain spectrum
that is flat within the signal waveband. EDFAs, however,make use of the stimulated emission of erbium ions toamplify input signals, with the result that their gain spectra, reflecting the fine structure of the ion energy levels,
are not flat but exhibit an asymmetrical two-peaked configuration within the amplification waveband. Normally this iscompensated for by means of a gain-flattening filter; thatis to say an optical filter having a loss profile that is theinverse of the gain spectra of the erbium-doped fiber isinserted into the EDFA, flattening the gain.
A number of proposals have been made relating to thetechnology used in gain-flattening filters, including the useof: etalon filters 1)-3), dielectric multilayer thin film filters 4),
long-period fiber gratings 5), short-period fiber Bragg gratings 6), Mach-Zender silica waveguides 7), and split-beam
Fourier filters 8). All of the above except the dielectric multi-*

WP Team, FITEL Photonics Lab.

layer thin film filters must be combined with a number ofcomponents that have a periodic characteristic withrespect to wavelength. Dielectric multilayer thin film filters,on the other hand, have the advantage that the loss profile
can be obtained by interference within a single filter, andare therefore superior in terms of insertion loss, ease of
manufacture and design freedom.
Their disadvantage is that obtaining the target loss profile with a dielectric thin film filter requires the precision
deposition of more than 70 layers, a task that is beyond
the capabilities of existing optical thickness control technology. Recently a high-precision thin film deposition system that can reoptimize the remaining layer thicknesses
as deposition proceeds has been developed and madecommercially available 9) , but if the error that occurs
exceeds a certain tolerance, the reoptimization is ineffective. A further problem remains in that it is necessary tokeep precise track of the optical characteristics of the thinfilm during deposition.
In the present work it has been possible to provide again-flattening filter based on dielectric multilayer thin film
technology by means of high-precision phase-predictive
optical thickness control, without resort to the kind of thickness reoptimizing system referred to above. The present
paper describes the optimized thin film design and the
newly developed optical thickness control method, andreports results obtained from prototypes.

2.

IMPROVEMENTS IN THIN FILM DESIGNAND DEPOSITION CONTROL

2.1 Thin Film Design Based on Thick Layer
There are broadly speaking two methods of obtaining adielectric multilayer thin film filter having a high-precision
loss profile: by increasing the designed tolerance; and by

12

0.5

0.0

0.0

-0.5

-0.5

-1.0

-1.0

-1.5

-1.5

-2.0

-2.0

0.50
0.45

DesignSimulation Result
Deviation

-2.5

1530

1535

1540

1545

PDL (dB)

0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05

1550

1555

-3.0
1560

0.00
0

Typical simulations of gain-flattening filters. (10 iterations)

Table 1

Evaluation of multilayer thin film designs.

Base optical thickness

λ /4

3 λ /45 λ /47 λ /49 λ /4

Number of layers

69

42

32

26

22

15.5 λ29.5 λ38.1 λ43.7 λ47.7 λ(base λ /4)

0.1 %

0.2 %

0.5 %

0.8 %

1.0 %

Refractive index tolerance

0.1 %

0.2 %

0.5 %

1.0 %

1.0 %

Total optical thickness(where λ = 1550 nm)
Optical thickness tolerance

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Incident Angle (deg)Wavelength (nm)Figure 1

3 λ /4 base

-2.5

-3.0

decreasing the optical thickness control error during deposition. First, we attempted to improve the former.
Structurally speaking a dielectric multilayer thin film consists of alternate layers of materials of high and low refractive indices, deposited onto a glass substrate. Generally,
the reference wavelength, also known as the center wavelength, is set in the vicinity of the target loss profile andeach layer of the thin film has an optical thickness ofapproximately one-quarter of the center wavelength.
The stack of layers of which the optical thickness is one
quarter of the center wavelength has optical characteristics such that there is a cut-off region near the center
wavelength and transmission bands on either side, so that
optimization by means of non-linear fitting of the optical
thickness of each layer makes it possible to approach thedesired loss profile. Normally, gain-flattening filters arealso designed by this method.
The cut-off band of a stack each layer of which has an
optical thickness of one quarter of the center wavelength
will appear in the vicinity of the center wavelength. This isbecause the length of the two-way optical path in eachlayer is one half of the center wavelength, as Bragg's Law
makes clear. Similarly when the two-way optical path
length in each layer is an odd multiple of one half of thecenter wavelength, a cut-off band occurs, in which casethe optical thickness of each layer is an odd multiple ofone quarter of the center wavelength. The optical characteristics of a stack each layer of which has an optical
thickness that is an odd multiple of one quarter of the center wavelength will in the same way show a cut-off band in
the vicinity of the center wavelength and transmission
bands on either side.

13

λ /4 base

0.40

Deviation (dB)

Transmittance (dB)

0.5

Figure 2

Dependence of PDL on incident angle for λ/4- and3λ/4-based designs.

Using as initial values of each layer of a stack the 1st,
3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th multiples of one quarter of the center
wavelength we designed the gain-flattening filter by optimizing using non-linear fitting, and compared them. 20
iterations of a simulation of the thin film deposition
process were carried out applying a random optical thickness or refractive index error having a standard deviation,and the error level at which the maximum value of flatness
exceeded 0.3 dB was established as the tolerance, where
flatness is defined as the difference between the maximum and minimum values of deviation between the target
loss profile and designed profile. Figure 1 shows typicalsimulations.
Table 1 shows the tolerance for each design. It can beseen that in designing a gain-flattening filter from a stack
each layer of which has a greater optical thickness, thenumber of layers needed to obtain the same characteristic
will be less. Also the greater the basic optical thickness
the greater will be the tolerance in optical thickness andrefractive index. On the other hand, whereas the greater
the basic optical thickness the greater the total optical
thickness of thin film, recent advances in thin film deposition equipment mean that this no longer presents a significant problem up to 50λ of total optical thickness, where λis 1550 nm.
When the incident light is not normal to the thin film surface, the polarization-dependent loss (PDL) takes a finite
value. Figure 2 shows the results of theoretical calculations for PDL for designs based in which the optical thickness is 1 and 3 times one quarter of the center wavelength. It can thus be seen that stacks each layer of which
has a greater optical thickness will tend to have a lower
value of PDL.
2.2 Direct Monitoring of Optical Thickness
Within the thin film deposition equipment there is a distribution of the material evaporation, so that film thickness willvary depending on its position in the equipment. When thedeposition process is of high precision, even the discrepancies in thickness due to the position on the substrate
can present problems. In the past, the indirect monitoring
method generally used for optical thickness monitoring
was to provide a substrate specifically for the optical thick-

Furukawa Review, No. 21

2002Light source (near 1550 nm)

Light source (400~1100 nm)

Mj =

Dome

Substrate formonitoring

Equation (1),{cosg jising j /n j
in j sing j cosg j}(1)

and gj will be given by Equation (2),Substrate

Substrate

gj =2πnjdjλ(2)Materiala) Indirect transmittancemonitoring system

Figure 3b) Direct transmittancemonitoring system

Schematics of indirect and direct transmittance monitoring systems for optical thickness.

ness monitor, in a position different from that of the substrate for thin film deposition, and to use a new monitoring
substrate for each layer, but the need to keep accurate
track of the film thickness distribution meant that thismethod was not suited to high-precision optical thickness
control. In the thin film deposition equipment used in thiswork we adopted a direct monitoring system for optical
thickness monitoring, providing direct monitoring of thepart of the substrate on which it was desired to obtain thetarget loss profile. It is of the transmittance type, with themonitor light normal to the substrate. Figure 3 shows
schematics of indirect and direct transmittance monitoring
systems for optical thickness.
The optical thickness monitor controls optical thickness
by taking advantage of periodic changes in the transmittance, where extremum appear in the transmittance forthe deposition of each one quarter of the monitoring wavelength. Conventionally the optical thickness of the eachlayer was about one quarter of the center wavelength, sothat the wavelength of the monitoring light was often only
less than one half of the center wavelength. Normally the
wavelength region of the target loss profile is in the neighborhood of the center wavelength, but since the refractive
indices at the wavelength region of the target loss profileand the wavelength of the monitoring light are different,
this can be a cause of thickness error even when consideration is given to wavelength dependence.
When the optical thickness is greater than 2/4 of thecenter wavelength, multiple transmittance extremum willappear even when the optical thickness monitoring wavelength is taken as the wavelength range of the target loss
profile, so that highly accurate optical thickness control
can be obtained even when the wavelength of the monitoring light is chosen from the wavelength range of the target loss profile. Using the thin film design based on thicklayer described above, the optical thickness monitoring
wavelength was chosen from the wavelength range of thetarget loss profile.
2.3 Phase-Predictive Optical Thickness Control
Let us take a moment to discuss briefly the theory of multilayer thin film 10). When the angle of incidence is normal to
the surface of a multilayer thin film, for the jth layer of thethin film, the characteristic matrix Mj will be as shown inwhere d j is the physical thickness and n j the complex
refractive index of the jth layer and, λ is the wavelength of
the incident light.
The characteristic matrix M of all N layers of the multilayer thin film may then be represented by a total productof the characteristic matrices of each layer, as shown inEquation (3).
M=

{

m 11
im 21

}

N
im 12
= Π Mj
m 22
j=1

(3)

The transmittance of the multilayer is given by Equation(4),
T = ττ*

ns
n0

(4)

and τ is as shown in Equation (5),

τ=

2n 0
(m 11 + im 12 n s )n 0 +(im 21 + m 22 n s )(5)where n0 and ns are the refractive indices of the medium
and the substrate respectively.
From these theoretical equations it is possible to derivechanges in transmittance in the layer being deposited. If
all the layers that have already been deposited are represented by a single characteristic matrix and this matrix isused as a constant, the change in transmittance in thelayer being deposited can be represented as a function of
the physical thickness alone. If the rate of deposition andthe refractive index within the layer being deposited are
constant, the physical thickness will be directly proportional to the deposition time, so that the change in transmittance can be represented as a function of the deposition
time. It then becomes possible, by non-linear fitting withthe transmittance during deposition as a time function, tofind the coefficient of the equation. Since the change intransmittance is a periodic function with respect to time, if
the value within the sine function is designated as thephase, it becomes possible to determine the phase at thecurrent time during deposition in real time, and by ending
deposition upon reaching the phase at which it should be
stopped according to the theoretical equations, high-accuracy optical thickness control can be achieved irrespectiveof the phase at which deposition should be stopped.
As was previously described, the use of thin film design
based on thick layer and direct optical thickness monitoring system at the same time results in the appearance ofmultiple transmittance extremum in the wavelength of themonitor light, so that combining with phase-predictive optical thickness control makes it possible to obtain higher
optical thickness accuracy.

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3.

PROTOTYPES

3.1 Prototype Specifications and Deposition Method
A prototype gain-flattening filter was manufactured for use
with an EDFA with a gain of 13 dB. Thin film design was
based on an optical thickness of 3λ /4, and 44 layers.
Figure 4 shows the target loss profile and the design characteristic profile. With respect to the target loss profile thedesign characteristic flatness is 0.18 dB.
Optical thickness control was carried out by direct optical thickness monitoring using a halogen lamp as the lightsource. Monitoring wavelengths were chosen for eachlayer within the range of 1530 - 1562 nm, so that control
was minimally affected by the monitoring wavelength. The
timing of the end of deposition of each layer was effectedby a phase-predictive optical thickness control, and a certain degree of timing compensation was applied so as tominimize error by considering shutter reaction time and soon.
Ion-assisted deposition (IAD) was the technique used
for thin film deposition. Substrate temperature and thedeposition conditions of the ion gun, etc. were optimized
to produce the best possible thin film quality, and thin film
deposition was carried out under conditions such that thedeposition rate stabilized immediately after the start ofdeposition of each layer.
3.2 Appearance
Figure 5 shows the appearance of the prototype gain-flattening filter chip and the gain-flattening filter module usingthat chip. The chip measures 2.0 × 1.4 × 1.0 mm, and themodule is 48 mm long by 6 mm in diameter.
3.3 Characteristic Test Results
Figure 6 shows the characteristic results obtained for the
prototype. Flatness with respect to the target loss profile
was 0.19 dB, and the insertion loss was 0.1 dB or less. At
temperatures of from 25 to 70°C, the deviation of flatness
was in the neighborhood of 0.01 dB.
3.4 Reliability Tests
As tests under various conditions of temperature andhumidity, we subjected 10 chips to each of the tests
shown in Table 2, which also shows the average values
for minimum insertion loss deviation and wavelength shift
before and after the tests. This demonstrates that there is
no problem in terms of changes in characteristics andwavelength shift.

Filter module
Filter chip

Figure 5

0.5

TargetDesign-0.5

Transmittance (dB)

Transmittance (dB)

0.0

-1.0
-1.5
-2.0
-2.5
-3.0

0.5

0.5

0.0

0.0

-0.5
-1.0

1535

1545

1555

-1.5

-2.0

-2.0

-2.5

-2.5

1565

Designed characteristics of gain-flattening filter.

-1.0

-1.5

1525

1530

1535

1540

1545

1550

1555

1560

-3.0
1565

Wavelength (nm)Wavelength (nm)

15

-0.5
TargetPrototype results
Deviation

-3.0
1525

Figure 4

Appearance of prototype gain-flattening filter chipand gain-flattening filter module.

Deviation (dB)Thin film deposition systems in which remaining layer
thicknesses are reoptimized according to the deposition
error as it takes place are in the process of becoming
mainstream technology, but the layer in which error
occurs and the amount of error varies with the batch being
processed so that batch-to-batch reproducibility is comparatively poor. Furthermore layer thickness reoptimization requires highly accurate transmittance and other optical constants during deposition, so that when errors occur
in estimating the optical constants reoptimization may beinaccurate. With phase-predictive optical thickness control, on the other hand, deposition proceeds accurately,
under conditions in which errors are to a great extent prevented from occurring, so that in addition to having highaccuracy, it has the further advantage of good reproducibility.

Figure 6

Results of characteristic test on prototype gain-flattening filter.

Furukawa Review, No. 21

2002

Table 2

Results of reliability tests.
Min. insertion loss deviation (dB)

Test item

4.

Wavelength shift (nm)Telcordia GR no. test conditions
Ave.

Std. Dev.

Ave.

Std. Dev.

High-temperature high-GR1209 85°C, 85%RH for 14 days

0.019

0.016

0.013

0.010

humidity aging

GR1221 85°C, 85%RH for 2500 hrs

0.040

0.024

0.020

0.007

Temperature-humidity-40~85°C, 50 cycles

0.023

0.018

0.003

0.003

cyclingGR1221 -40~85°C, 500 cycles

0.022

0.011

0.018

0.003

High-temperature storage

GR1221 85°C, <40%RH for 2500 hrs

0.085

0.009

0.024

0.012

Low-temperature storage

GR1221 -40°C for 2500 hrs

0.050

0.018

0.038

0.011

Boiling water immersion

Water at 100°C for 10 min

0.036

0.031

0.018

0.014

CONCLUSION

In the technology conventionally used for the optical thickness control of thin film deposition, it has proved difficult to
produce dielectric multilayer thin film for gain-flattening filters, but in the current work it has been possible, using
thin film design based on thick layer and adopting phasepredictive optical thickness control, to realize a gain-flattening filter for use in EDFAs with a gain of 13 dB that has
a flatness of 0.19 dB with respect to the target loss profile.
Applications of gain-flattening filters made with dielectric
multilayer thin film technology are not limited to EDFAs,but extend to Raman amplifiers and so on. Furthermore,
the high-precision dielectric multilayer thin film deposition
technology that has here been developed on the basis ofthin film design based on thick layer and phase-predictive
optical thickness control can, in addition to gain-flattening
filters, be applied to edge filters, bandpass filters, and soon. There is an on-going trend in WDM communications
toward wider signal bandwidths, and the technology
developed here will make it possible to meet future
demand for various types of filters.

REFERENCES
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beyond 40 nm using long-period grating, OFC'97, PD2 (1997).
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8) J. W. Arkwright et al.: Custom designed gain-flattening filters withhighly reproducible spectral characteristics, OAA'99, ThD18-1(1999).
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ISSP '97, 589 (1997)10) Ishiguro, Ikeda et al.: Optical thin-film, Kyoritsu Shuppan. (inJapanese)11) H. Takahashi: Temperature stability of thin-film narrow-bandpass
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Manuscript received on November 1, 2001.

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