An optical device for combining two orthogonally polarized beams or
splitting a beam into two orthogonally polarized beams is provided that
utilizes two collimating/focusing lenses and a thin film wire-grid
polarizer. Because the thin film wire-grid polarizer can be fabricated in
very thin profile, the provision of a thin film wire-grid polarizer allows
the optical polarization beam combiner/splitter device to be highly
integrated and simultaneously realize a number of performance advantages
of a thin film wire-grid polarizer over other types of polarizers utilized
in various prior art polarization beam combiner/splitters.
