Patent ID: 6882469

Claim:
A regenerative optical amplifier comprising: a resonator having first and second reflective mirrors forming ends of a roundtrip path for light, and an amplifying portion for amplifying light in said roundtrip path; first and second Pockels cells respectively provided on first and second reflective mirror sides; and first and second polarizers respectively provided between said first and second Pockels cells and said amplifying portion; wherein said first polarizer reflects light of a first polarization toward said first Pockels cell; said first Pockels cell is driven by application of voltage sufficient to rotate the polarization of transmitted light by 90 degrees in the time from when said light of a first polarization has passed through until it returns via said first reflective mirror, so as to convert light of said first polarization into light of a second polarization, said applied voltage being maintained for a predetermined period so as to rotate the polarization of transmitted light by 90 degrees; and said second Pockels cell is driven by application of voltage when extracting amplified light amplified by making a roundtrip of said amplifying portion from said resonator, so as to convert said amplified light to amplified light of said first polarization; the amplified light of said first polarization being reflected by said second polarizer to be extracted outside of said resonator.