A laser diode continuously laser-oscillates and its output light is applied to an optical modulator. A pulse driver drives the optical modulator according to a data to be transmitted. A phase modulator is driven by a phase modulator driver and phase-modulates the output from the optical modulator. The polarization direction of the incident light of the phase modulator is set so that the modulation efficiency of the phase modulator becomes the maximum. The output light of the phase modulator inputs a birefringent medium and applies to an optical transmission line after transmitting the birefringent medium. The principal axis of the birefringent medium is disposed so as to be at an angle of 45° to the polarization direction of the output light from the phase modulator.