High average power Faraday isolator

摘要

A reflective Faraday isolator for handling high average powers. The Faraday isolator includes a Faraday medium, one or more magnets, and pole pieces to concentrate the magnetic field produced by the magnet on the Faraday medium. The light energy is received at a first side of the Faraday medium, transmitted through the Faraday medium, and reflected by a mirrored opposing second side of the Faraday medium. The second side of the Faraday medium is attached to a heat removal means, whereby great amounts of heat energy may be removed, producing thermal gradients in the Faraday medium which are substantially parallel to an axis of the Faraday isolator. Various embodiments of the Faraday isolator of the present invention use different heat removal means.