OPTICAL AMPLIFIER

• Main Authors: MORI TAKAYOSHI, WADA MASAKI, SAKAMOTO YASUSHI, YAMAMOTO TAKASHI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 05.02.2015
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION; ELECTRICITY; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PHYSICS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical amplifier having a simple amplifier configuration, capable of gain adjustment of each propagation mode with a small loss of excitation light.SOLUTION: A multimode optical amplifier includes: an optical fiber for amplification, having an added rare earth element, for transmitting signal light of a plurality N of propagation modes; an excitation light source for generating the excitation light to excite the optical fiber for amplification; and a multiplexer for multiplexing the excitation light with the signal light. Mode converters for exclusively converting the N propagation modes of the signal light to respectively different propagation modes are installed on the way of the optical fiber for amplification. 【課題】増幅器構成が簡易、且つ励起光の損失が小さいながら各伝搬モードの利得調整が可能な光増幅器を提供することを目的とする。【解決手段】本発明に係る光増幅器は、複数Ｎ個の伝搬モードの信号光を伝送する希土類元素の添加された増幅用光ファイバと、増幅用光ファイバを励起する励起光を発生させる励起用光源と、励起光を信号光に合波する合波器とを備えるマルチモード光増幅器において、信号光のＮ個の伝搬モードをそれぞれ異なる伝搬モードに排他的に変換するモード変換器を増幅用光ファイバの途中に設置する。【選択図】図１