Optical circulator and application method thereof

Abstract

The invention provides an optical circulator and an application method thereof. The optical circulator comprises collimators and an optical rotation assembly, a Faraday rotating crystal is located between a first birefringent crystal and a second birefringent crystal, a magnet ring is located on the outer side of the Faraday rotating crystal, and an included angle of 45 degrees is formed between the optical axis of the first birefringent crystal and the optical axis of the second birefringent crystal; the second collimator comprises a single optical fiber pigtail and a second collimating lens,the single optical fiber pigtail comprises a second single-mode optical fiber, and a double optical fiber pigtail, a first collimating lens, the first birefringent crystal, the Faraday rotating crystal, the second birefringent crystal, the second collimating lens and the single optical fiber pigtail are sequentially arranged in the light path direction. The included angle of 45 degrees is formedbetween the optical axis of the first birefringent crystal and the optical axis of the second birefringent crystal, one polarization-state light can be only allowed to pass through a light path from apolarization maintaining optical fiber to the second single-mode optical fiber, any polarization-state light is allowed to pass through a light path from the second single-mode optical fiber to a first single-mode optical fiber, optical isolation is also achieved, and the application range is wide.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the field of optical devices, in particular to an optical circulator and a method for using the optical circulator. Background technique [0002] Optical circulators mainly have two structures, one is polarization-dependent and the other is polarization-independent. The polarization-dependent type has a compact structure and low material cost, but it only allows one polarization state to work. Usually, a polarization-maintaining fiber is required, while the polarization-independent type can work for any polarization state. Since it needs to deal with any polarization state, the optical path is more complicated. The larger the size, the higher the cost. Contents of the invention [0003] The first object of the present invention is to provide an optical circulator with compact structure and wide application range. [0004] The second object of the present invention is to provide a method for using an optical circulator with ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The polarization-dependent type has a compact structure and low material cost, but it only allows one polarization state to work. Usually, a polarization-maintaining fiber is required, while the polarization-independent type can work for any polarization state. Since it needs to deal with any polarization state, the optical path is more complicated. Larger size, higher cost

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