In an optical amplifier wherein pumping laser light and signal laser light are multiplexed and supplied as input to a fiber doped with a rare earth element, by decreasing the number of connected sections, loss due to the connection to the rare earth-doped fiber is decreased, thereby to improve the amplifying characteristics and to simplify the production step. a pair of fibers, each which is connected by a transmitting optical fiber 1 and a rare earth-doped fiber 4, at a connected sections, are heated and fused with each other are aligned in part length to a fused jointed portion 3 which is stretched in the vicinity of the connected section 2 on the rare earth-doped fiber side, thereby forming an optical coupler.