Patent ID: 7079319
Filing Date: 2006-07-18
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
1. A optical device, comprising: a polarization-controlling reflector, said reflector converting incident-light polarization components having incident angles of polarization into reflected-light polarization components having reflected angles of polarization, said reflector having a plurality of states, and being controllable such that said reflector can be changed from one of said plurality of states to another of said plurality of states, said reflected angles of polarization having an orientation relative to said incident angles of polarization, said orientation being a function of the state of the reflector; and a polarization-dependent optical-path device, said polarization-dependent optical-path device converting input-light polarization components that are at least partially spatially-coincident and that have been coupled into the optical device into spatially-separated input-light polarization components, said polarization-dependent optical-path device converting said spatially-separated input-light polarization components into said incident-light polarization components, and wherein when said reflector is in a first one of said plurality of states, said orientation is such that said polarization-dependent optical-path device causes at least a portion of the reflected-light polarization components to be out-coupled from the optical device, wherein said polarization-dependent optical-path device includes an input polarization-dependent path splitting element and an output polarization-dependent path splitting element, the input polarization-dependent path splitting element converting said input-light polarization components that are at least partially spatially-coincident into said spatially-separated input-light polarization components, thereby defining a branched input, and wherein prior to said polarization-dependent optical-path device converting said spatially-separated reflected-light polarization components having reflected angles of polarization into said output-light polarization components that are at least partially spatially-coincident, said output polarization-dependent path splitting element converts said spatially-separated reflected light components having reflected angles of polarization into spatially-separated reflected-light components having output angles of polarization, thereby defining a branched output, said output angles of polarization depending on the state of the reflector, wherein when said reflector is in said first one of said plurality of states, at least a portion of said output-light polarization components is out-coupled from the optical device through said branched output, and wherein the portion of said output-light polarization components that is out-coupled from the optical device through said branched output depends on the state of said reflector.