Patent ID: 6476967
Filing Date: 2002-11-05
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
A compact optical circulator with three ports, positioned between a dual-core collimator and a single-core collimator, wherein a light beam emitted from the dual-core collimator is input at the first port and is transmitted to the single-core collimator via the second port, and a light beam emitted from the single-core collimator is input at the second port and is transmitted to the dual-core collimator via the third port, the compact optical circulator with three ports comprising:a propagation director coupling the light beam emitted from the dual-core collimator to the first port of the circulator and the light beam emitted from the third port of the circulator to the dual-core collimator; a first birefringent device including a first optical axis, and having a function of splitting a light beam into two orthogonal polarized beams and combining two orthogonal polarized beams together; a second birefringent device including a second optical axis, and shifting two polarized beams entering the second birefringent device according to the second optical axis; a third birefringent device including a third optical axis, and having a function of splitting a light beam into two orthogonal polarized beams and combining two orthogonal polarized beams together; a first polarization rotator including a pair of non-reciprocal polarizing-rotating devices and a reciprocal polarizing-rotating device, positioned between the first and second birefringent devices to change the polarization of the polarized beam; and a second polarization rotator including a pair of non-reciprocal polarizing-rotating devices and a reciprocal polarizing-rotating device, positioned between the second and third birefringent devices to change the polarization of the polarized beam.