Patent ID: 6898000

Claim:
A method of polarization-independent optical sampling of an optical input signal in optical communications, comprising: using a probe pulse source of a predetermined wavelength to obtain a probe pulse signal; processing said optical input signal by using two polarized optical input signal components ‘p’ and ‘s’ of the optical input signal with said probe pulse signal in an unsplit form, to combine said two polarized optical input signal components in first and second stages separately with said probe pulse signal, by converting in said first stage one of said two polarized input signal components to produce a first component of an output signal, and diverting said first component of said output signal into an optical measuring element; phase shifting the other of said two polarized input signal components; converting in said second stage said phase shifted input signal component to produce a second component of said output signal; and diverting said second component of the said output signal also into said optical measuring element.