| 摘要 |
<p>An optical assembly (10; 94; and 108), such as a circulator, for selectively coupling first and third input/output windows (56 and 66) at a forward end with a second input/output window (84) at a rearward end includes a first group (22 and 24; 96 and 98) of optical elements that establish a desired orientation of polarization components (58, 60, 62 and 64) for first and third beams that are respectively introduced via the first and third windows. In the preferred embodiment, the desired orientation is one in which the orthogonal polarization components of the third beam are shifted to locations (72 and 74) on opposite sides of aligned polarization components of the first beam. A second functionally related group (30) of optical elements functions as a polarization-dependent isolator for coupling the first beam to the second window and coupling an input beam from the second window to the rearward face of the first group of optical elements such that a rearwardly propagating beam from the second window is coupled to the third window. In the preferred embodiment, the first group of optical elements includes both a polarization mixer (22) and a polarization combinor (24). In another embodiment, the first group is a pair of split optical members (96 and 98), with each member having an optically neutral portion (104 and 106) and a walk-off portion (100 and 102). In a third embodiment, the first group includes the polarization mixer of the preferred embodiment, but not the polarization combinor. <IMAGE></p> |
