A unique reflective surface is employed to compensate polarization
dependence of optical taps. Specifically, the reflective surface
compensates optical tap induced polarization by employing the intrinsic
properties of metals rather than complex thin film stacks. To this end, a
reflective thin metal film or a polished reflective metal surface may be
employed. In a particular embodiment of the invention, a reflective
surface that is coated with a single dielectric thin film can also be
employed. In one example, the metal is preferably tungsten because it
exhibits a large difference in the spread of reflectance between the s and
p polarization states.
