Optical circulator

Abstract

Abstract PURPOSE:To obtain an optical circulator having small loss, high isolation and no dependency on polarized light by fitting a Faraday element and optical rotatory elements to each terminal of an optical circulator and separating a polarized light beam splitter under specified conditions. CONSTITUTION:A Faraday element 11-i (i is 1-4 in the figure), optical rotatory elements 9-i, 10-i and polarized light separating elements 13-i, 14-i for ensuring no dependency on polarized light are fitted to each terminal 15-i of an optical circulator and a polarized light beam splitter 12 for setting the output direction of light beams is further fitted. The polarized light separating films of the splitter 12 are continuously arranged along an optical path with leakage so as to remove leaking light in succession. The effect of accuracy in the rotational angle of each of the oscillating surfaces of the elements 11-i, 9-i, 10-i and the effect of the extinction ratio of the splitter 12 on the isolation of the resulting optical circulator are reduced and small loss and high isolation can be attained.

Inventors

• 👤 Yoji Fujii
• 👤 藤井　洋二

Bibliographic Details