Patent ID: 8437081
Filing Date: 2013-05-07
Classification: G02F,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A thermally compensated non-reciprocal optical device, comprising in an optical path: an input linear polarizer for transmitting linearly polarized light from a received light beam at a design wavelength; a composite reciprocal rotator comprising a first slab including a first reciprocal material and at least a second slab including a second reciprocal material different from said first reciprocal material, wherein a temperature coefficient of reciprocal rotation for said first slab and said second slab are both at least |5×10 at least one Faraday rotator for providing a non-reciprocal rotation having a temperature coefficient for said non-reciprocal rotation, and an output linear polarizer for transmitting forward light after transmission by said Faraday rotator; wherein at a design temperature said temperature coefficient for said composite reciprocal rotation has an opposite sign and a magnitude that matches within 50% relative to a magnitude of said temperature coefficient for said non-reciprocal rotation for reducing a temperature variation of a total forward rotation provided by said optical device so that rejection of backscattered light by said optical device is improved as a temperature is varied from said design temperature.