| 摘要 |
An improved optical circulator transfers light from a first optical port to a second optical port, and from the second port to a third port. The circulator has reciprocal polarization rotators (16-A, -B; 18-A, -B) and non-reciprocal polarization rotators (20-A, -B), birefringent beam splitters and combiners (14-A, -B), and a birefringent walk-off element (26) as well as a polarization-dependent light bending device comprising two tapered birefringent plates (22, 24). The light bending device compensates for an angle between a first light beam emanating from the first port and a second light beam propagating to the third port. The existence of this angle allows the first and third fibers to be coupled to the light beams using a single lens.
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