OPTICAL SIGNAL TRANSMITTER AND OPTICAL SIGNAL TRANSMITTING METHOD

摘要

The optical system of a transmitter for quantum cipher comprises a Faraday mirror and a phase modulator. The phase modulator has a double refraction power, and therefore a very large insertion loss attributed to the optical path structure is inevitable. As a result, the S/N ratio is low and the adjustment at start is difficult. Two different optical pulses, an optical pulse of TE polarization and an optical pulse of TM polarization enter the transmitter and pass through a phase modulator (8). The optical pulse of TE polarization is changed to an optical pulse of TM polarization and the optic al pulse of TM polarization is changed to an optical pulse of TE polarization because of rotation of polarization plane by a Faraday mirror (7) and reflected by the mirror (7) and outputted from the transmitter. Two polarization beam splitters (5, 6) are used, and the optical pulse of TM polarization is made to bypass the phase modulator (8). Only the optical pul se of TE polarization is made to pass through the phase modulator (8).