The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 04, 1989
Filed:
Nov. 05, 1987
William M Glasheen, Derry, NH (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
A monolithic optical switch has one or more Faraday effect polarization rotation layers of bismuth doped gadolinium deposited on opposite sides of an optically inactive substrate. A non-magnetic reflecting surface is deposited on one side of the substrate over the rotator layer. A polarizing pair (crossed polarizer and analyzer elements) is deposited in a side-by-side arrangement over the Faraday rotator layer on the other side of the substrate. Plane polarized light from an optical fiber passes through the polarizer element, the rotator layer(s) and the substrate to the reflecting surface and is reflected back to the analyzer element on the other side. The presence of a magnetic field results in the rotation of the plane of polarization of the light so that passage of the reflected light through the analyzer to an output optical fiber depends on the presence or absence of the magnetic field.