Patent ID: 6954307

Claim:
A circulator comprising: a first input port operable to receive light including a first and a second component having a first and a second polarization, respectively; a polarization beam splitter optically coupled to the first input port and operable to reflect the first component of light transmitted from the first input port having the first polarization and pass the second component of light transmitted from the first input port having the second polarization; a reflector optically coupled to the polarization beam splitter; a non-reciprocal device optically coupled to the reflector and operable to convert the first component of light of the first polarization into light of the second polarization; a first output port operable to receive the first component of light of the second polarization from the non-reciprocal device; and a second output port operable to receive the second component of light of the second polarization from the polarization beam splitter substantially contemporaneously in time with the receipt of the first component of light at the first output port.