Abstract: An optical fiber including a core having an area of about several times an optical wavelength and composed of a hollow hole, and a cladding having a diffraction grating which is arranged at least in a peripheral area adjacent to the core and has a grating period equal to ½ the optical wavelength.

Abstract: A polarization maintaining optical fiber is formed by using a core in a cross sectional shape having different diameters along two orthogonal axes defined on a plane perpendicular to an optical axis, or a photonic crystal structure cladding having a diffraction grating with lattice intervals for realizing confinement of lights within the core which are different along two orthogonal axes defined on a plane perpendicular to an optical axis, or the photonic crystal structure cladding that is divided into four divided portions along a circumferential direction, where at least a part of lattice holes in a first pair of divided portions that are facing each other along one direction have a diameter larger than that of lattice holes in a second pair of divided portions that are facing each other along another direction orthogonal to the one direction.

Abstract: An all-optical time-division demultiplexing circuit is designed to output all the channels of time-division multiplexed signal pulses to different output ports simultaneously. A pulse stream of time-division multiplexed signal pulses and linearly chirped control pulses synchronized with the signal channels are input into an optical Kerr medium. The optical Kerr medium provides locally cross-phase modulation to the control pulse, depending on the presence or absence of the signal pulses of each signal channel. And the optical Kerr medium modulates the power of the component frequencies &ugr;1, &ugr;2, . . . , &ugr;N of the control pulses in accordance with each of the signal channel, by inducing the optical frequency shift to compensate the control pulse chirp on the optical frequency axis. The Kerr medium outputs a power modulated control light, which is separated in a wavelength-division demultiplexing circuit into component frequencies &ugr;1, &ugr;2, . . .

Abstract: A sampling light source generates a pulse sequence of sampling light having a pulse width smaller than that of target light and a single plane of polarization. A polarization beam splitting unit splits each of the sampling light output from the sampling light source, and the target light into two light components having planes of polarization shifted 90.degree. from each other, multiplexes each pair of split sampling and target light components having planes of polarization shifted 90.degree. from each other, and outputs the respective multiplexed light components to different optical paths. A pair of nonlinear optical members each generate a cross-correlation signal based on the sampling and target light components output from the polarization beam splitting unit to each optical path and having planes of polarization shifted 90.degree. from each other as sum frequency light.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a white pulse source that produces spectrally shaped white pulses of a constant optical output power over a wide wavelength range. The white pulse source includes a pump pulse source for generating pump pulses with a center wavelength .lambda.0 and a waveguided nonlinear optical medium with a length L. The waveguided nonlinear optical medium is characterized by two properties: the first property is that chromatic dispersion D(.lambda.0,z) at the center wavelength of pump pulses in ps/nm/km is positive at an input end of said waveguided nonlinear optical medium, where z=0, and decreases towards an output end. The second property is that said chromatic dispersion D(.lambda., z) has a maximum value D(.lambda.p(z), z) at a peak wavelength .lambda.p(z) within a range of propagation distance given by L1.ltoreq.z.ltoreq.L where 0.ltoreq.L1<L, and that said chromatic dispersion D(.lambda., z) has two zero-dispersion wavelengths, .lambda.1(z) and .lambda.2(z), where D(.lambda.

Abstract: A first tunable wavelength pulse light source is driven by a reference signal to emit a first optical pulse. An optical demultiplexer demultiplexes a first optical pulse emitted from the first pulse light source into a reference optical pulse and an incident optical pulse to be sent into an object to be measured. An optical multiplexer multiplexes the reference optical pulse and an outgoing optical pulse passing through the object to output multiplexed light. A second pulse light source generates a second optical pulse which is synchronous with the first optical pulse and delays a predetermined time for each period of the first optical pulse. A sampling unit receives the multiplexed light and the second optical pulse to obtain an optical pulse train signal proportional to the intensity of the multiplexed light obtained in synchronism with the second optical pulse.

Abstract: High peak pulse light is incident on an optical fiber having a dispersion decreasing region which serves as a main region for generating supercontinuum or idler light and in which the chromatic dispersion does not increase but at least partially decreases in the direction in which light travels. The fiber can be applied to broad band width idler light generation with both light transmission directions. Four wave mixing upon incidence of the light on the dispersion decreasing region of the optical fiber are efficiently obtained.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to provide an optical clock phase lock loop capable of a higher operational speed than the conventional technology by utilizing high-speed optical phenomena other than gain modulation. In an optical clock phase lock loop for conducting locking control by means of obtaining the correlation of an optical signal and optical clock, after combining an optical clock of a short pulse containing a harmonics component with an optical signal by means of an optical coupler 102, and providing the resultant light to traveling-wave semiconductor laser amplifier 103, the correlation signal of the optical signal and optical clock included in the output signal of this traveling-wave semiconductor laser amplifier 103 is detected by means of optical bandpass filter 104.

Abstract: This invention is an improvement of a mode-locked laser stabilizing method and apparatus used with a mode-locked laser apparatus which comprises an optical cavity which consists of an optical modulator which modulates the loss or the phase of light at a fixed frequency, an optical delay line to electrically change the optical path length of the cavity, and an optical amplifier which amplifies a modulated optical pulses. In this method, at least one of the relaxation oscillation frequency components and the harmonic components in the output optical pulses of the mode-locked laser are extracted, and a process of controlling the optical delay line by using the extracted frequency component as an error signal for feedback control and to suppress the error signal below a fixed value.

Abstract: A multiple-frequency-modulation mode-locked laser device which generates high-speed optical pulse trains and can be used as a high-speed optical pulse source in the fields of optical communications and optical measurement is presented, wherein the repetition frequency F.sub.rep and the pulse width .DELTA.t are able to be controlled independently with only the laser itself.A drive signal generation means is provided which generates a frequency-mixed drive signal mixed from at least two different frequencies f.sub.1 (=N.sub.1 f.sub.r), f.sub.2 (=N.sub.2 f.sub.r), . . . , which are integral multiples of the frequency spacing f.sub.r (=c/R) of the longitudinal modes of either a ring cavity or a Fabry-Perot cavity. This frequency-mixed drive signal is supplied to an optical modulation means of the cavity.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to provide an optical clock phase lock loop capable of a higher operational speed than the conventional technology by utilizing high-speed optical phenomena other than gain modulation. In an optical clock phase lock loop for conducting locking control by obtaining the correlation of an optical signal and optical clock, after combining an optical clock of a short pulse containing a harmonics component with an optical signal by using an optical coupler 102, and providing the resultant light to traveling-wave semiconductor laser amplifier 103, the correlation signal of the optical signal and optical clock included in the output signal of this traveling-wave semiconductor laser amplifier 103 is detected by an optical bandpass filter 104.

Abstract: A wavelength division multiplex type mode-lock laser device which simultaneously generates high-speed optical pulse trains for more than one wavelength. This device simultaneously generates high-speed optical pulse trains at two or more wavelengths. A ring resonator type mode-lock laser device or a Fabry-Perot type mode-lock laser device is modified so that it has an optical path difference providing structure which provides different refractive indices for the polarization directions which are at right angles at one another. This enables configuring a resonator corresponding to the optical path lengths formed according to the refractive indices and hetero-wave length optical path equalizing means to provide different refractive indices for different wavelengths.