Varied line-space grating for flat spectral response of coupling to single-mode fiber

We use a planar linear grating with varied line-space grooves to introduce a tailored one-dimensional phase variation profile that results in an aberrated point-spread function at the focal plane. A design procedure for the period chirp map for such gratings is developed. As an example, we present theoretical and experimental results on a mechanically ruled, varied line-space echelle grating in single-mode fiber-coupled optical multiplexers in the wavelength region of 1545 nm. The varied line-space grating changes the multiplexer's Gaussian spectral response function to a flat-top dependence with reduced sensitivity to source laser wavelength drift.