Polarization diversity optical receiver for coherent optical

Abstract

A polarized wave diversity optical receiver for coherent optical communication including: an optical local oscillating circuit (7) for oscillating local oscillating light; a mixing circuit (8) for mixing signal light and the local oscillating light to obtain two polarized components; a detecting circuit (9) for detecting the polarized component to output intermediate frequency signals (e.sub.S and e.sub.P); and a frequency control circuit (11) for controlling, in accordance with the intermediate frequency signals (e.sub.S and e.sub.P), the oscillating frequency of the optical local oscillating circuit (7). To ensure that the intermediate frequency does not disappear, the frequency control circuit (11) outputs a combined signal of a sum and a difference of the intermediate frequency signals (e.sub.S and e.sub.P).