Magneto-optical switch

Abstract

The invention provides a magneto-optical switch. The magneto-optical switch comprises a single-fiber collimator, a first birefringent crystal, a first half-wave plate component, an optical rotation component, a second half-wave plate component, a second birefringent crystal and a dual-fiber collimator which are sequentially arranged in the optical path direction, wherein the optical rotation component is provided with a refractor; a first Faraday optical rotation piece is arranged on the side of the refractor close to the first half-wave plate component; an optical rotation device is arranged on the side of the refractor close to the second half-wave plate component; the optical rotation component is further provided with a magnetic field producer positioned outside the first Faraday optical rotation piece; the single-fiber collimator is a single-core beam-expanding fiber collimator with a beam-expanding optical fiber mounted therein; and the dual-fiber collimator is a dual-core beam-expanding fiber collimator with two beam-expanding optical fibers mounted therein. The magneto-optical switch provided by the invention adopts smaller devices, and the birefringent crystals and the optical rotation component are both small in size, so that the size of the magneto-optical switch is reduced and the manufacturing cost of the magneto-optical switch is lowered.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to an optical device used in an optical fiber communication system, in particular to a magneto-optical switch. Background technique [0002] Various optical switches are widely used in modern fiber optic communication systems to realize the switching of light beams between one input fiber and multiple output fibers or between multiple input fibers and one output fiber. It is mainly used in modern fiber optic communication industry, instrumentation industry and defense industry. [0003] Common optical switches are mainly divided into mechanical optical switches and non-mechanical optical switches, which apply micro-optical electromechanical technology (MEMS), liquid crystal technology, thermo-optic effect, electro-optic technology and magneto-optical technology. Among them, the mechanical optical switch technology is relatively mature, which has the advantages of low production cost, wide bandwidth, and low loss, but at the same ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0008] However, since the optical fibers 12 and 24 installed in the single-fiber collimator 11 and the dual-fiber collimator 23 are common optical fibers, the spot diameter of the light beam exiting from the optical fiber 12 is large and the scattering is serious, resulting in the need to use a larger double-fiber collimator. Refractive crystal 13, the volume of Faraday rotator plate 16,19 and birefringent crystal light guide 17, birefringent crystal beam deflector 18 is all very big like this, and use roof prism as the situation of birefringent crystal 18, also need in A certain gap is set between the birefringent crystal light guide 17 and the birefringent crystal beam deflector 18, resulting in the Faraday rotator 16, 19 and the volume of the birefringent crystal light guide 17 and the birefringent crystal beam deflector 18 being difficult. made smaller

[0009] And, since the magnetic field generating devices 15, 20 generally comprise an iron core, and coils are wound on the iron core, due to the volume of the Faraday rotators 16, 19, the birefringent crystal light guide 17, and the birefringent crystal beam deflector 18 Larger, it is difficult to arrange the above-mentioned devices in the same iron core, and it is necessary to use two magnetic field generating devices 15, 20 to apply magnetic fields to the Faraday optical rotation plates 16, 19 respectively, resulting in more devices used in the magneto-optical switch, and the volume of the device Larger, so that the production cost of the magneto-optical switch is higher, and the packaging is more difficult

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