The present invention has an object to provide an optical amplifier capable of realizing a good response characteristic in a wide frequency band, even when a population inversion state is formed by a pumping light supplied to an optical amplification medium and an ASE light generated in the optical amplification medium. To this end, in the optical amplifier according to the present invention, a delayed phase matching fiber in which a first fiber whose response speed is relatively low is arranged on the input side and a second fiber whose response speed is relatively high is arranged on the output side, is used as the optical amplification medium doped with a rare-earth element.