Mumbai University > Electronics and telecommunication > Sem 7 > optical communication and networks

Marks: 10

Years: DEC 2015

Optical Isolator

In a number of applications it is desirable to have a passive optical device that is nonreciprocal; that is, it works differently when its inputs and outputs are reversed. Two examples of such a device are isolators and circulators

Optical isolators

• Optical isolatorsare devices that allow light to pass through them in only one direction. This is important in a number of instances to prevent scattered or reflected light from traveling in the reverse direction.

• One common applicationof an optical isolator is to keep such light from entering a laser diode and possiblycausing instabilities in the optical output.

• Many design configurations of varying complexity exist for optical isolators. The simple ones depend on the state of polarization (SOP) of the input light as shown in figure 4.4.

• However, such a design results in a 3-dB loss (one-half the power) when unpolarized light is passed through it, since it blocks one-half of the input signal.

• In practice, the optical isolator should be independent of the SOP since light in an optical link normally is not polarized.

• Figure 4.4 shows a design for a polarization-independent isolator that is made of three miniature optical components. The core of the device consists of a 45° Faraday rotator that is placed between two wedge-shaped birefringent plates or walk-off polarizers. These plates could consist of a material such as YVO4 or TiO2.

• Light traveling in the forward direction (left to right in Fig. 4.5) is separated into ordinary and extraordinary rays by the first birefringent plate. The Faraday rotator then rotates the polarization plane of each ray by 45°.

• After exiting the Faraday rotator the two rays pass through the second birefringent plate. The axis of this polarizer plate is oriented in such a way that the relationship between the two types of rays is maintained.

• Thus when they exit the polarizer, they both are refracted in an identical parallel direction.

• Going in the reverse direction (right to left), the relationship of the ordinary and extraordinary rays is reversed when exiting the Faraday rotator due to the nonreciprocity of the Faraday rotation.

• Consequently, the rays diverge when they exit the left-hand birefringent plate and are not coupled to the fiber anymore.