Wideband interferometer type polarization light beam combiner and splitter

摘要

A interferometer type polarization beam combiner and splitter, which can combine or split polarized light over a wide band, is provided. The interferometer type polarization beam combiner and splitter includes: an optical splitter; an optical coupler; an optical path length difference imparting unit, which includes a plurality of optical waveguides arranged between the optical splitting unit and the optical coupling unit; one or two input/output ports connected to the optical splitter; and two input/output ports connected to the optical coupler. A half-integer of a wavelength of λc is set as a normalized phase difference, for the optical path length difference imparting unit, between two polarization states, and means for generating a difference in refractive index dispersion is provided between the optical waveguides of the optical path length difference imparting unit, so that the change rate of the transmittance with respect to wavelength is suppressed for the two polarization states.