An electro-optic receiver includes a polarization splitter and rotator (PSR) that directs incoming light having a first polarization through a first end of an optical waveguide, and that rotates incoming light from a second polarization to the first polarization to create polarization-rotated light that is directed to a second end of the optical waveguide. The incoming light of the first polarization and the polarization-rotated light travel through the optical waveguide in opposite directions. A plurality of ring resonators is optically coupled the optical waveguide. Each ring resonator is configured to operate at a respective resonant wavelength, such that the incoming light of the first polarization having the respective resonant wavelength optically couples into said ring resonator in a first propagation direction, and such that the polarization-rotated light having the respective resonant wavelength optically couples into said ring resonator in a second propagation direction opposite the first propagation direction.

A positioning member for positioning optical components includes a laminated body in which a plurality of thin metal plates is laminated. In the positioning member for positioning the optical components by an upper surface of a first plate forming the laminated body and a side surface of a second plate disposed above the first plate, a portion where two non-parallel side surfaces of the second plate for positioning the optical components cross each other includes a cutout portion including a crossing portion of the side surfaces.

An optical coupling device can couple incident light from a fiber into waveguides, but can reduce the coupling of return light from the waveguides into the fiber. A Faraday rotator layer can rotate by forty-five degrees, with a first handedness, respective planes of polarization of incident beams, and can rotate by forty-five degrees, with a second handedness opposite the first handedness, respective planes of polarization of return beams. A redirection layer can include at least one grating coupler that can redirect an incident beam of one polarization so that the redirected path extends within the redirection layer toward a first waveguide, and can redirect an incident beam of an opposite polarization so that the redirected path extends within the redirection layer toward a second waveguide. An optional birefringent layer can spatially separate incident beam having different polarizations, so that two single-polarization grating couplers can be used.

Embodiments described herein may be related to apparatuses, processes, and techniques related to a dual polarization chiplet that may be used by an optical receiver to split multi-polarized light traveling on a single fiber and carrying two or more light signals into two or more fibers each carrying the particular light signal. The dual polarization chiplet may also be used by an optical transmitter to combine multiple light signals to be transmitted onto a single fiber, where each of the multiple light signals are represented by a different polarization of a wavelength on the single fiber. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

A photonic integrated circulator can be fabricated by including a plurality of polarizing beam splitters and optical polarization rotators such that two copies of the optical signal are output at a receiver in substantially aligned polarization states. The circulator can be used for facilitating bi-directional communications between photonic integrated circuit devices, which are inherently polarization sensitive, while reducing signal loss.

A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) apparatus includes optical source configured to emit a laser beam in a first direction, a polarization wave plate configured to transform polarization state of the laser beam headed in the first direction toward a target environment, and a reflective optical component to return a portion of the laser beam toward the optical source along a return path and through the polarization wave plate as a local oscillator signal. A polarization selective component to separate light in the return path based on the optical polarization, wherein the polarization selective component refracts orthogonally polarized light along the return path to a divergent path, wherein the polarization selective component is further configured to enable interference between the local oscillator signal and the target signal to generate a combined signal. An optical detector configured to receive the combined signal from the second direction and lensing optics configured to collimate the refracted light along a focal plane of the optical detector.

One example power equalizer includes an input/output assembly, a multiplexer/demultiplexer, a pre-attenuation component, and a light beam modulator. The multiplexer/demultiplexer demultiplexes a first light beam into a plurality of first sub-wavelength light beams including a particular sub-wavelength light beam, and propagates the plurality of first sub-wavelength light beams to the pre-attenuation component. The pre-attenuation component makes the particular sub-wavelength light beam incident onto the light beam modulator at a preset angle. The light beam modulator performs angular deflection on the plurality of first sub-wavelength light beams to obtain a plurality of second sub-wavelength light beams. The pre-attenuation component then propagates the plurality of second sub-wavelength light beams to the multiplexer/demultiplexer. The multiplexer/demultiplexer multiplexes the plurality of second sub-wavelength light beams into a second light beam.

A free space optical receiver including a multi-mode transmission medium configured to receive a light beam comprising a plurality of modes, the light beam having been propagated through a free space path. The free space optical receiver also includes a mode separating means configured to separate the plurality of modes for transmission through a corresponding first plurality of transmission media as a corresponding plurality of single-mode light beams, and a combining means configured to combine two or more of the plurality of single-mode beams into a combined beam for transmission through a further transmission medium.

A single-shot Mueller matrix polarimeter (1700), MMP, comprising: a polarization state generator (1706), PSG, arranged to receive a source optical field (1704) and provide a probe field (1708) having a plurality of spatial portions, each portion having a different polarization state; a polarization state analyser (1718), PSA, arranged to receive a modified probe field (1716) resulting from interaction of the probe field generated by the PSG with a sample under investigation, and further arranged to apply, to each of a corresponding plurality of spatial portions of the modified probe field, a plurality of retardances and a plurality of fast axis orientations; and a detector (1720) arranged to detect an output (1722) of the PSA.

The present disclosure relates to a waveplate having a substrate forming an optic. The substrate may have an integral portion forming a plurality of angled columnar features on an exposed surface thereof. The plurality of angled columnar features may further be aligned parallel with a directional plane formed non-parallel to a reference plane, with the reference plane being normal to a surface of the substrate. The metasurface forms a birefringent metasurface.