![]() ![]() The main limitations are that the usable optical bandwidth is small and that a substantial electric power is required to drive piezo actuators creating the sound wave. This operation principle allows one to realize rather compact isolators for use on photonic chips. If those optical residences are positioned such that the ring is resonant for one propagation direction, resident coupling of the ring to the straight waveguide can cause substantial propagation losses.įor the opposite propagation direction, the induced loss can be much lower. Here, the rotation of the acoustic field causes a direction-dependent shift of resonance frequencies. In particular, it has been demonstrated that one can utilize rotating sound waves in a ring-shaped waveguide resonator, coupled to a straight waveguide. Therefore, alternative methods are under development, where non-reciprocal light propagation is obtained based on completely different physical mechanisms, not involving magnetic fields. Here, the requirement of a strong magnetic field is a major problem.Īs mentioned above, conventional types of optical isolators based on the Faraday effect are hard to implement in the context of photonic integrated circuits. However, it is hard to develop ultra-compact devices for use in photonic integrated circuits. Relatively compact low-power isolators can also be made.Power limitations arise due to thermal effects (particularly thermal lensing and depolarization) associated with parasitic absorption. Such devices can be made for operation with very high optical powers by using a sufficiently large beam area.Faraday isolators can be made for a wide range of optical wavelengths.Īlthough each device works well only within a limited bandwidth, that bandwidth can be substantial – sufficient for a wide range of applications.The insertion loss can be rather small, and a high degree of optical isolation (e.g.Many Faraday isolators transmit only light with a suitable direction of linear polarization, but there are also polarization-independent versions.This is a kind of magnetically induced optical activity.Įssential characteristics of Faraday isolators are: ![]() The vast majority of optical isolators are Faraday isolators, based on the Faraday effect, i.e., a rotation of the polarization direction caused by a magnetic field. Light injected into port 1 will exit at port 2, while input at port 2 will be sent to port 3, and input at port 3 to port 1. optical fibers.Ī variant is an optical circulator, having at least three optical ports. ![]() Many isolators are used with free-space beams, while others are coupled to waveguides, e.g. the maximum optical power ( peak or average power) which can be transmitted. ![]() the operation wavelength and the optical bandwidth in which sufficiently high isolation is achieved.the degree of isolation, i.e., the power loss for light in the unwanted direction (usually expressed in decibels).More precisely, they exhibit a relatively low propagation loss in one direction, but a much higher propagation loss in the other direction.Įssential characteristics of optical isolators are the following: Optical isolators (also called optical diodes) are devices which transmit light in one direction but not in the opposite direction. How to cite the article suggest additional literature Encyclopedia > letter O > optical isolators Optical Isolatorsĭefinition: devices which transmit light in one direction but not in the opposite directionĬategories: general optics, photonic devices ![]()
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