Patent ID: 6856716

Claim:
An optical interferometer, comprising: a first and a second optical waveguides separately extending from a first side to a second side facing the first side, the first and the second optical waveguides optically connected each other on said first side and said second side; and an optical cavity including said first and said second optical waveguides and extending between a first end part formed on the first side and a second end part formed on the second side, wherein said optical cavity has an optical output port provided on the first side by optically connecting the optical output port to said first and said second optical waveguides and an optical input port provided on the second side by optically connecting the optical input port to said first and the second optical waveguides, a first and a second nonlinear gain media optically inducing variation of a refractive index are provided in interiors of said first and said second optical waveguides, respectively, said optical cavity includes a saturable absorption medium provided on the first side by connecting the saturable absorption medium to said first and the second optical waveguides, and a mode-locked laser oscillation arises in said optical cavity.