Linear dispersion (GDD) design using grating group

Abstract

Precise control of dispersion output holds paramount significance across domains such as optical fiber communication, time stretching, and spectral interferometric ranging. In comparison to other dispersion elements, like prisms, gratings are widely applied in the field of dispersion control due to their advantages of broad spectral range, tunability, and high resolution. Moreover, linear dispersion is the most desired characteristic by designers in most cases. Here, we develop a dispersion model for grating groups to determine the optimal structural parameters for achieving linear dispersion in high-order grating arrays. Based on our model, we provide corresponding parameter selection methods that allow for quantitative design of the size and slope of output dispersion by adjusting input parameters such as angle, distance, and parallelism. Additionally, we experimentally establish a dispersion interferometry structure based on the grating ensemble that validates our proposed approach's capability for linear dispersion output (linearity better than 0.9998). We believe that our approach is universally significant and contributes to enhancing the performance of dispersion interferometric measurement systems, chirp amplification systems, and other related systems.