Patent ID: 7193721

Claim:
A system comprising: a source of a first input beam containing a first polarization component and a second polarization component; a polarizing beam splitter positioned to separate the first polarization component from the second polarization component; and a first polarization-manipulating retroreflector positioned to reflect the first polarization component before the first polarization component and the second polarization component are recombined, wherein the first polarization-manipulating retroreflector comprises: a cube corner block; a first polarization-manipulating element in a path of an incident beam entering the cube corner block, the first polarization-manipulating element rotating polarizations of the first and second polarization components to directions for which the cube corner block produces linear polarizations in a reflected beam from the cube corner block; and a second polarization-manipulating element in a path of the reflected beam, wherein the second polarization-manipulating element converts the linear polarizations of the reflected beam to a desired form.