Patent ID: 6384957
Filing Date: 2002-05-07
Classification: G02F

Abstract:
A variable optical attenuator utilizing the Faraday effect, comprising:a Faraday rotator for providing polarized light transmitted through said Faraday rotator with a variable Faraday rotation angle; and elements for extracting linearly polarized light arranged on a light axis in front of and behind said Faraday rotator, respectively, in which an optical attenuation amount of said variable optical attenuator is changed by a variation of the Faraday rotation angle, wherein an angle formed between the optical axis of one of said elements for extracting the linearly polarized light and the optical axis of the other of said elements is set such that the Faraday rotation angle, at which the wavelength-dependency of the optical attenuation amount of said variable optical attenuator becomes the maximum, is brought to be substantially 0Â°.