Provided is an ultra-short pulse light source having an optical pulse generator 111 for emitting short pulse light, an optical amplifier 112 for amplifying the short pulse light output from the optical pulse generator 111 and an optical compressor 120 for compressing the short pulse light. The optical compressor 120 has multi-step configuration of steps polarization beam splitters 1211,2, optical fibers 1221,2,1231,2 for compressing the incident pulse light, polarization rotating element 1241,2, for rotating the polarization direction of the incident light by 90 degrees to return the light to the optical fibers 1231,2, polarization maintaining optical fibers 1251,2 provided to the output side of the polarization beam splitters 1211,2, and a polarization maintaining optical fiber 1251 at the front step is connected to a polarization maintaining optical fiber 1252 at the rear step.