Origin of channel crosstalk in 100 GHz-spaced silica-basedarrayed-waveguide grating multiplexer

Abstract
It is shown that the channel crosstalk limit of –30 dB for the recently developed 100 GHz-spaced silica-based arrayed-waveguide grating multiplexer is determined by the optical path phase error distribution and that the crosstalk caused by the deformation of the light power distribution in the multiplexer is –39 dB. The high-frequency components of the phase error distribution should be reduced by at least two-thirds to achieve a crosstalk of –39 dB.