METHOD AND DEVICE FOR OPTICAL SAMPLING

摘要

PURPOSE:To perform optical sampling at a high speed, by making input optical signals of prescribed polarization and pumped light from one end of a polarization maintaining optical fiber by multiplexing and extracting signal light polarized in the direction intersecting the polarizing direction of the input signal at right angles at the other end of the optical fiber. CONSTITUTION:Sufficiently weak input optical signals are made incident on a terminal 1 and adjustment is made so that the phase angle of the optical signals can coincide with one polarizing direction (direction of X-axis) of a polarization maintaining optical fiber 7 by means of a phase adjusting means 5. The optical signals are propagated through the optical fiber 7 and made incident on a polarizer optical fiber 8 in its minor axis direction (direction of y-axis). When pumped light is made incident from another terminal 2 under this state, the polarization maintaining characteristic declines and birefringence is produced in the fiber 7 and the optical signals propagated in the X-axis direction appear in the polarizing direction intersecting the X-axis direction (Y-axis direction also.The optical signals in the Y-axis direction are made incident on the polarizer optical fiber 8 in the major axis (x-axis direction) at a connecting point 9 and appear at a terminal 3 after they are propagated through the fiber 8. Therefore, input optical signals can be sampled at the timing of the pumped light.