Patent ID: 7518711

Claim:
An optical waveform measurement apparatus, comprising: a first polarization controller for controlling a polarization state of measured light; a second polarization controller for controlling a polarization state of an optical sampling pulse for sampling the measured light; a nonlinear optical medium, to which the measured light having the polarization state controlled by said first polarization controller and the optical sampling pulse having the polarization state controlled by said second polarization controller, are input; an extraction unit for extracting a prescribed linear polarization component from an optical signal output from said nonlinear optical medium; a first adjustment unit for adjusting said first polarization controller, based on an optical signal output from said nonlinear optical medium being tapped before said extraction unit and an optical signal output from said extraction unit, so that a polarization direction of the measured light has a first angle with respect to a polarization component extraction axis of said extraction unit; and a second adjustment unit for adjusting said second polarization controller, based on an optical signal output from said nonlinear optical medium being tapped before said extraction unit, so that a polarization direction of the optical sampling pulse has a second angle with respect to a polarization component extraction axis of said extraction unit, wherein the optical signal output from said extraction unit is used for waveform measurement of the measured light.