OPTICAL LOOP DEVICE, OPTICAL SIGNAL DELAY CIRCUIT, FREQUENCY SHIFT METHOD, AND OPTICAL SIGNAL DELAY METHOD

摘要

A laser pulse is injected into an optical waveguide loop and then either frequency-shifted to generate a laser beam of a desired frequency, or sent around the loop to cause a desired amount of delay. A laser pulse (LP) is injected by an optical path selector (12) and then made to go around an optical waveguide loop. A frequency shifter (13) generates a frequency-shifted laser beam, and then further shifts the frequency-shifted laser beam by just a prescribed frequency interval each time the beam goes around the loop, thereby generating a laser beam frequency-shifted for a prescribed number of cycles. Also, an optical amplifier (14) amplifies the laser pulse circling the optical waveguide loop. Then, the optical path selector (12) emits the frequency-shifted laser beam to the outside of the optical waveguide loop at a prescribed time corresponding to a prescribed number of cycles.