Title :
Optical Quasi-Circulator Using Power Couplers and Optical Amplifiers
Author :
Saavedra, Carlos E. ; Ho, Stanley S K
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Queen´´s Univ., Kingston, ON, Canada
fDate :
5/1/2010 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
A new concept for an optical quasi-circulator operating in the 1550-nm band is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in this letter. The quasi-circulator consists of two power couplers, two optical amplifiers, and a pair of attenuators. The power splitters are connected back-to-back and have a high split ratio of 98 : 2. The amplifiers are used as directional devices to block reverse energy flow from Port 2 to Port 1 as well as from Port 3 to Port 2 in the quasi-circulator. The attenuators are used for overall system gain control. Measurements show an insertion loss close to 0 dB in the forward directions from Port 1 to Port 2 and from Port 2 to Port 3.
Keywords :
amplifiers; optical beam splitters; optical circulators; optical directional couplers; optical losses; attenuators; directional devices; forward direction; insertion loss; optical amplifiers; optical quasicirculator; power couplers; power splitters; split ratio; system gain control; Active circulator; optical circulator; optical quasi-circulator; photonic integrated circuits (PICs);
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LPT.2010.2043250
