| 摘要 |
The present invention provides an optical parametric circuit for separating four-wave-mixing wave(s) (FWM wave(s)) from signal wave(s) and/or pump waves without using a wavelength filtering device, and optical circuits using the same. The optical parametric circuit of the present invention is made by connecting two output ports of a 2x2 optical directional coupler to a nonlinear optical medium via dispersive optical media, each of which has a specific length and a specific propagation constant. By inputting signal waves having carrier angular frequencies omega Sj (j=1, 2, . . . N) and pump waves having carrier angular frequencies omega P1, omega P2 into the first input port of the optical directional coupler, the FWM waves, generated in the nonlinear optical medium, having carrier angular frequencies omega fj (= omega P1+ omega P2- omega S) are output from the second input port of the optical directional coupler. By inputting the signal waves and the pump waves from different input ports of the directional coupler, it is possible to separate amplified signal waves and the FWM waves from the pump waves. By adjusting the lengths and the propagation constants of the dispersive optical media, the amplified signal waves are separated from the pump waves and the FWM wave. The optical parametric circuit is used for wavelength conversion of optical signals, parametric amplification of optical signals, optical phase conjugation (spectral inversion) and for all-optical switching and for optical circuits using the same, for example, optical logic circuits, optical time-division multi/demultiplexers and/or optical sampling circuits.
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