The optical path of the variable optical attenuator, the variable optical attenuator internal receiver and

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a variable optical attenuator with small size, low power consumption, which is simple and inexpensive using a liquid crystal optical device with polarization dependency and a receiver with the variable optical attenuator.;SOLUTION: The variable optical attenuator is provided with a polarization beam splitter (3) which divides an optical path of incident light into polarization (S polarization, P polarization) having different optical paths according to polarization states of the incident light and a reflective liquid crystal devices (4, 5) with the polarization dependency which changes and reflects the polarization states of polarization distributed for every polarization divided by the polarization beam splitter and made incident according to an electric field to be applied and synthesizes the respective polarization whose polarization states are changed by the reflective liquid crystal devices by the polarization beam splitter (3).;COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT