Polarization-insensitive optical switch and multiplexing apparatus

摘要

Polarization-insensitive optical switch and dual channel carrier multiplexer includes a polarization beam splitter for receiving an input collimated beam which has arbitrarily polarized components, splitting the beam into the two components. One of the components is rotated by a 1/2 wave plate so as to yield a polarized beam which is polarized in the same direction as the other beam. The two polarized beams are then applied to a polarization sensitive interferometric multimode fiber optic switch and modulator. The output of the interferometric multimode fiber optic switch and modulator contains two beams, both polarized in the same direction. One of the beams is rotated ninety degrees by a 1/2 wave plate, and the two mutually perpendicularly polarized beams are then recombined by a polarization beam splitter operated in reverse to yield an output beam containing mutually perpendicular components.