Compact optical circulator with three ports

摘要

The invention provides a compact optical circulator with three ports positioning between a dual-core collimator and a single-core collimator. The inventive circulator has a propagation director to couple a light from the dual-core collimator to one port of the circulator and another light form the other port of the circulator to the dual-core collimator. The invention further provides a compact optical circulator with three ports having a reflective compensator. The reflective compensator compensates the optical path length of two polarized beams. Furthermore, the invention eliminates the polarization mode dispersion by utilizing a reflective compensator. As well, the inventive circulator forgoes use of the reciprocal polarizing-rotating unit, thus reducing production costs.