Patent ID: 7474813

Claim:
An optical isolator, comprising: a polarizer having front and rear facets that are tilted from perpendicular with respect to the optical path of a beam of light; a Faraday rotator that receives the beam of light from the polarizer, wherein the polarizer is placed in the optical path before the Faraday rotator and wherein the optical path of the beam of light is through the front and rear facets of the polarizer that are tilted from perpendicular with respect to the optical path such that the beam of light passes through the front and rear facets of the polarizer that are tilted from perpendicular before reaching the Faraday rotator and wherein the Faraday rotator has front and rear facets that are tilted from perpendicular with respect to the optical path of the beam of light wherein the optical path of the beam of light is through the front and rear facets of the Faraday rotator that are tilted from perpendicular with respect to the optical path; and an analyzer that receives the beam of light from the Faraday rotator, wherein the analyzer is placed in the optical path after the Faraday rotator and wherein the analyzer has a front facet that is tilted from perpendicular with respect to the optical path of the beam of light and a back facet that is perpendicular to the optical path of the beam of light, wherein the optical path of the beam of light is through the front facet of the analyzer that is tilted from perpendicular with respect to the optical path, and the back facet of the analyzer that is perpendicular to the optical path such that the beam of light passes through the front facet of the analyzer before reaching the back facet of the analyzer, and wherein the back facet of the analyzer is configured such to be attachable to a connector or a fiber ferrule; wherein each of the polarizer, the Faraday rotator, and the analyzer are configured substantially parallel with respect to the optical path of a beam of light such that the effective aperture of the optical isolator is maximized.