Optical gain equalizer and optical fiber transmission line

Abstract

Disclosed is an optical gain equalizer for equalizing optical powers for a plurality of signal lights having wavelength different from one another. Disclosed are also an optical transmission line and an optical wavelength multiplex transmission system, for which the optical gain equalizer is used. The optical gain equalizer has a characteristic where a loss is monotonously changed in a signal wavelength band. A characteristic of a monotonous reduction of loss from a short wavelength to a long wavelength and/or a characteristic of a monotonous increase of loss from a short wavelength to a long wavelength is utilized. Specifically, the optical gain equalizer is composed of a well-known optical element such as an optical etalon filter, an optical band-pass filter, an optical fiber grating or the like. Even if a loss varies on the optical transmission line, the optical gain equalizer can provide an uniform optical power for respective channels.

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