OPTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING ELEMENT

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical signal processing element which is high in the degree of freedom in characteristic design, is stable and high in performance and is suitable for optical polarization control in extremely simple constitution. SOLUTION: This optical signal processing element has an optically rotating dispersion element and cubic nonlinear optical element, is made incident with reference light and single or plurality of control light varying in wavelengths at the polarization plane of the same bearing as the bearing of the reference light and controls the polarized light of the reference light by the control light. The optically rotating dispersion element of the optical signal processing element described above is a high-polymer compd. holding the arrangement of the liquid crystals obtd. by controlling the cholesteric pitch of cholesteric liquid crystals low polymers having the photopolymn. part and/or photocrosslinked part within the molecules in a low-molecular liquid crystal state and fixing the pitch by the photopolymn. and/or photocrosslinking.