POLARIZATION MAINTAINING OPTICAL FIBER COUPLER AND PRODUCTION THEREOF

摘要

PURPOSE:To improve characteristics and productivity by cutting out plural cores which propagate incident light while maintaining the linear polarization state thereof to the arbitrary length at which the main axial directions of the polarization of the light are aligned and stretching the intermediate part to form an optical branching/coupling part. CONSTITUTION:The optical branching/coupling part of the polarization maintaining optical fiber 21 is formed by stretching the multicore polarization maintaining optical fibers 21 aligned with the main axial directions of the polarized waves of the light propagating in the respective cores 22, 23 as they are and, therefore, the incident light is branched while the linear polarization state thereof is maintained. The deterioration in the polarization maintaining characteristic of the light after the branching is consequently obviated. The main axial directions of the polarized waves of the plural cores 22, 23 are aligned in the stage of the fibers. The need for the optical axis alignment of the polarized waves in the stage of forming the optical branching/coupling part is eliminated and the working time is reduced in this way.