This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LPT.2017.2700524, IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters
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Enhanced flat-top band-rejection filter based on

reflective helical long-period fiber gratings
Chengliang Zhu, Hua Zhao, Peng Wang, Ramanathan Subramanian, and Hongpu Li, Member, IEEE,
Member, OSA

has been successfully obtained [11]. However, the obtained

AbstractA simple and robust method to produce a flat-top
band-rejection filter with a strongly-enhanced rejection depth is
proposed and firstly demonstrated in experiment, which is
realized based on utilization of two consecutively-cascaded helical
long-period fiber gratings (HLPGs) and work in the reflective
direction. As a result of the proposed method, a flat-top filter with
a rejection depth larger than 34dB and a bandwidth of
~15nm@2dB has been successfully obtained.
Index Terms Helical long-period fiber grating, flat-top band-
rejection filter, rejection depth.
I. INTRODUCTION
rejection depth is limited to a one less than 12dB, since the
broad flat-top bandwidth of the resulted filter is achieved by
sacrificing the rejection depth of the individual HLPG [11].
In this study, a simple and robust method to produce a
flat-top rejection filter with a strongly-enhanced rejection-
depth is firstly proposed and experimentally demonstrated.
Unlike the previous HLPG-based methods [7, 11] where the
two cascaded gratings worked in the transmission and the
rejection depth obtained was limited in a one less than 15dB,
here the two consecutively-cascaded HLPGs work in the
reflective direction just by connecting a fiber retroreflector at

A S is generally known that long-period fiber grating (LPG)

can be used as an optical band-rejection filter with a
bandwidth of several tens of nanometers [1-6]. However, due to
some unrealistic demands in the gratings fabrication, such as
either the sinc-like apodization [2] or the long grating length
(>50cm) etc. [3-5], it is extremely difficult to control the profile
of the resulted notch especially for a LPG with a broad flat-top
rejection-band, although this kind of devices are strongly
desired in fiber communication system as well as fiber sensing
system. Recently, Shin et al. have proposed and demonstrated a
new approach which enables to produce a tunable flat-top
rejection filter [7]. Principle of it is based on utilization of the
helical-type long-period fiber grating (HLPG) [8-10], where
two cascaded HLPGs with a spatial separation larger than 10
cm have been utilized. However, due to the inevitable
polarization scrambling effect happened within the separation
region, the spectral interferences between overlap of these two
HLPGs cannot be avoided and as a negative result, fluctuation
of the loss-depth is so large (>10 dB) that a flat-top rejection-
band cannot be obtained. To overcome this issue, most recently,
we have proposed and demonstrated an improved HLPG-based
method, where two HLPGs with opposite helicities are
consecutively cascaded but without any spacing. As a result, a
flat-top band- rejection filter with a bandwidth of ~12 nm@1dB
the most right end of the HLPG and periods of the two HLPGs
are not identical, which have a little bit difference in magnitude.
As a result of the proposed method, a flat-top filter with a
rejection depth larger than 34dB and a bandwidth of ~15 nm@
2dB has been successfully obtained.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND RESULTS
The detailed procedures and setup for fabrication of the
HLPGs are exactly the same as the ones what we had utilized
and described in [11-13]. To experimentally demonstrate the
realization of the flat-top band-rejection filter, the measurement
setup can be arranged as that shown in Fig. 1. In order to realize
a flat-top band-rejection filter, two HLPGs with opposite
helicities, which are successively cascaded and have a little bit
difference in period, are utilized as shown in the inset of Fig. 1.
At beginning, the first HLPG with clockwise helicity (cHLPG)
was fabricated, which has a grating period of 630 m and a
length of 25.2 mm (40 periods). Transmission spectrum of this
grating is shown in Fig. 2 and labeled by the black solid line. It
is seen that the loss depth and peak-wavelength are ~25 dB and
1567 nm, respectively. After the cHLPG was fabricated, the
second HLPG, which has a grating period of 625 m, grating
length of 25 mm (40 periods), and a counterclockwise helicity

Manuscript received xxxxx, 2017; First published xxxx, 2017, current

version published xxx, 2017. This work is supported by the Grant-in-Aid for
Scientific Research from JSPS and partly supported by Casio Science
Promotion Foundation in Japan.
C. Zhu, P. Wang, R. Subramanian, and H. Li* are with the Graduate School
of Sci. & Techn., Shizuoka University, Naka-Ku, Johoku 3-5-1, Hamamatsu
432-8561, Japan (*e-mail: ri.kofu@shizuoka.ac.jp). H. Zhao is with the Key
Laboratory of Optoelectronic Technology of Jiangsu Province, School of
Physical Science and Technology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Fig. 1. The measurement setup for the proposed flat-top rejection filter
210023, P. R. Chin. based on two consecutively-cascaded HLPGs.

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(ccHLPG), was then fabricated and consecutively connected to
cHLPG. Note that unlike the previous method proposed in [11],
here the grating periods of the two utilized HLPGs are not
identical, which are purposely arranged to have 5 m difference
in magnitude, corresponding to a 10 nm separation in
wavelength for the two resonant wavelengths. Measurement
results for the transmission spectrum of the cascaded HLPGs is
also shown in Fig. 2 and labeled by red solid line. To well
evaluate the flatness of the resulted notch filter, the spectra near
the loss peak (within the dash-line rectangular area) are
amplified in vertical direction and shown in the inset of the Fig.
2. From this figure, it can be clearly seen that a flat-top
band-rejection filter with a depth of ~18.5 dB and a bandwidth
of ~13 nm@1dB has been successfully obtained.
0 -20
Transmission (dB)
-10 -17
-18
-20 -19
-20
cHLPG
1550 1560 1570
Wavelength (nm)
1580
-30 cHLPG+ccHLPG
1540 1560 1580 1600 1620
Wavelength (nm)
Fig. 2. Measurement results for the transmission spectra of the cHLPG
and the two consecutively-cascaded HLPGs (i.e., cHLPG+ccHLPG).
To further increase the depth of the obtained band-rejection
filter, we added a fiber retroreflector and an circulator to the
setup of Fig. 1, which is shown in Fig. 3, where besides the two
consecutively cascaded HLPGs with different periods, a fiber
retroreflector is utilized and connected to the most right end of
the HLPG, as result, the incident light undergoes double passes
through the two cascaded HLPGs and works in the reflective
direction through the reflection mirror and the circulator.
Measurement results for the reflective spectra of the two
consecutively cascaded HLPGs are shown in Fig. 4 and labeled
by the blue solid line. For comparison purpose, the transmission
Fig. 3. The measurement setup for the proposed flat-top rejection filter
where besides the two consecutively-cascaded HLPGs, a fiber retroreflector
is purposely added and connected to the most right end of the HLPG.
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2
spectra shown in Fig. 2 are also given in Fig. 4. To well
visualize the flatness of the resulted notch filter, once more the
spectra near the loss peak (within the dash-line rectangular
area) are amplified in vertical direction and shown in the inset
of the Fig. 4. From this figure, it can be clearly seen that a
flat-top band-rejection filter with a depth ~34 dB and a
bandwidth of ~15 nm@2dB has been successfully obtained,
which has the strongest depth than ever before among all the
LPG-based flat-top band-rejection filters, to the best of our
knowledges.
0
Transmission (dB)
-10
-30
-32
-34
-30
-36
1550 1560 1570 1580
-40 cHLPG Wavelength (nm)
cHLPH+ccHLPG
W reflector
-50
1540 1560 1580 1600 1620
Wavelength (nm)
Fig. 4. Transmission and reflective spectra of the fabricated flat-top
rejection filter, where the black curve represents the transmission spectrum
of the HLPG with clockwise helicity, the red curve represents the
transmission spectrum of the two consecutively-cascaded HLPGs but with
different helicities, and the blue curve represents the reflective spectrum
obtained by using the setup in Fig. 3.
III. NUMERICAL ANALYSIS FOR THE SPECTRUM OF THE TWO
SUCCESSIVELY CASCADED HLPGS WITH DIFFERENT RESONANT
WAVELENGTHS
To verify and look inside the principle of the resulted
band-rejection filter based on the two consecutively cascaded
HLPGs, we also had done some numerical simulations by using
the transfer matrix method [14, 15] but under the assumption
that the spectral overlap parts of the two gratings (i.e., the
cHLPG and ccHLPG) will not interfere with each other due to
the different helicities. Specifically, the parameters such as the
radii of the core a1 and cladding a2, the refractive indices of the
core n1, cladding n2, and the surrounding material n3, are
particularly chosen as: a1=8.2, a2=125 m, n1=1.4580,
n2=1.4536, and n3=1.0. All the other parameters related to the
cHLPG and ccHLPG, such as the grating periods and grating
lengths are adopted the same as the ones what we used in
experiments. Moreover, without losing any generalities, we
limit our calculations to those HLPGs where there only exists a
coupling between the fundamental core mode (LP 01) and the
cladding modes TE0v/TM0v and HE2v [16] (v is the mode
number in radial direction). We have obtained a sets of resonant
wavelengths related to the cladding modes LP1v but only the
LP12 mode is within the wavelength range of 1500-1650 nm
when the grating periods in about 625-630 m (which were the
same as we used in experiment) are selected, which in return
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LPT.2017.2700524, IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters
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means that the spectral notches shown in Fig. 2 are attributed to
the coupling between the core mode and the LP 12 cladding [1]
mode in our case.
Following the assumptions proposed above, transmission
[2]
spectrum of the successively-cascaded HLPG (without the
retroreflector) may be regarded as the superposition of the two
HLPGs individually. Simulation results for the transmission [3]
spectrum are given in Fig. 5, where the black curve represents
the transmission spectrum of the cHLPG, the red curve [4]
represents the transmission spectrum of the ccHLPG, and the
blue curve represents the spectrum of the two consecutively [5]
cascaded HLPGs. It is seen that almost the same as the
experimental one, a roughly flat-top band-rejection filter with a
[6]
depth of ~16.5 dB and a bandwidth of ~14.3 nm @1dB (blue
solid line in Fig. 5) has been obtained. Moreover, to compare
the results shown in Fig. 5 with those shown in the inset of Fig. [7]
2, one can easily find that the simulation results somehow agree
well with the experimental ones especially for the spectral [8]
envelopes, which in return means that the principle of the
resulted flat-top band-rejection filter what we assumed above
[9]
(i.e., the linear superposition of the two HLPGs in spectrum)
may be reasonable in our case, although more precise
explanations to address the reason why this kind of flat-top [10]
notch filter can be obtained are desired, which is beyond this
study and will be discussed elsewhere in near future. [11]
0 [12]
Transmission (dB)
-5
[13]
-10
[14]
-15 [15]
cHLPG
ccHLPG
-20 cHLPG+ccHLPG
[16]
1520 1540 1560 1580 1600 1620
Wavelength (nm)
Fig. 5. Simulation results for the transmission spectra of the individual
HLPGs (i.e., cHLPG and ccHLPG) and the two consecutively-cascaded
HLPGs, respectively.
IV. CONCLUSION
A simple and robust method to create a flat-top
band-rejection filter with a strongly-enhanced rejection depth is
proposed and experimentally demonstrated, which is realized
based on utilization of two consecutively-cascaded HLPGs
combined with a fiber retroreflector. Unlike the previous
HLPG-based methods, here the two cascaded gratings work in
the reflective direction realized just by connecting a fiber
retroreflector to the most-right end of the HLPG. As a result, a
flat-top filter with a depth larger than 34 dB and a bandwidth of
~15 nm@2dB has been successfully obtained, which is the
strongest depth reported to date, based on our knowledges.
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3
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