| 摘要 |
<p>To provide an optical modulator which can perform optical modulation without using pulses having a high level peak power, a nonlinear optical medium (5) is disposed inside a laser resonator (1) which includes an input mirror (2), an output mirror (3), a laser medium (4) disposed between the input and output mirrors (2, 3), and exciting means (6) for exciting the laser medium (4) so that laser light is radiated by the laser medium (4). The optical modulator can operate in both self phase modulation mode (SPM) and induced phase modulation mode (IPM). To operate the optical modulator in SPM mode, the laser pulses passing through the nonlinear optical medium (5) are self phase modulated. To operate the optical modulator in IPM mode, a light emitting device (8) is provided which emits light to be modulated. The light to be modulated is incident on the input mirror (2) and passed through the medium (5) so that the light is induced phase modulated by the laser serving as a pumping light. <IMAGE></p> |
