Patent ID: 8457501

Claim:
An optical system for routing light, the optical system comprising: an optical element having an intrinsic polarization-dependent loss and disposed to be encountered by the light at least twice; a reflective element disposed to be encountered by the light between encounters with the optical element; and a wave plate disposed to be encountered by the light between encounters with the optical element, wherein the wave plate has a retardance optimized according to a material property of the reflective element to reduce polarization-dependent loss in the system and/or the wave plate has an orientation optimized according to a material property of the reflective element to reduce polarization-dependent loss in the optical system, wherein: the light comprises a plurality of spectral bands; the optical element comprises a dispersive element; and the reflective element comprises a plurality of dynamically configurable routing elements to direct given spectral bands depending on a state of each such dynamically configurable routing element.