Polarization scrambler

US4923290A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• U.S. Philips Corporation · US

Inventors

• Ernst Brinkmeyer · Kürten, DE
• Wolfgang Brennecke · Hamburg, DE
• Rainer Otto · Darmstadt, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 16, 1988
• Grant date: May 8, 1990
• Expiry date: Aug 16, 2008

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02F1/0134
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

The invention relates to a polarization scrambler comprising a controllable optical phase retardation element for retarding with respect to one another components of a light beam with a different state of polarization, the light beam propagating through the element, and a control arrangement for controlling the phase retardation element, said control arrangement being adapted to supply a control signal so that as a function of time the phase retardation is controlled in such a way that with a given state of polarization (SOP) of the light entering the polarization scrambler varying states of polarization occur at its output in such a way that, averaged in time, the light intensities emerging in each SOP are at least substantially equal. An arrangement suitable for arbitrary input states of polarization is obtained when at least a further controllable phase retardation element (2, 3) connected to a control arrangement and succeeding the first element in the light propagation direction is provided which, represented on the Poincare sphere, creates states of polarization in accordance with a rotational axis which is different from that associated with the first phase retardation eleme…