Abstract: A solar cell assembly with a carrier having formed thereon solder lugs. The solder lugs have a base portion that electrically connects to an electrical contact of a solar cell. The soldering lug defines a wire-receiving opening in which a heavy gauge electrical wire can be soldered or secured with electrically conductive epoxy.

Abstract: A polarization controller comprising means for generating linearly polarized light and at least one liquid crystal cell. A preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a linear polarizer and two liquid crystal cells. In the preferred embodiment, the polarization direction of the polarizer and the orientation of the fast axis of the first and second liquid crystal cells are oriented in a manner that allows the linearly polarized light provided by the polarizer to be transformed into any state of polarization at the output of the second liquid crystal cell. The present invention provides full coverage of the Poincaré sphere.

Abstract: A polarization controller comprising means for generating linearly polarized light and at least one liquid crystal cell. A preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a linear polarizer and two liquid crystal cells. In the preferred embodiment, the polarization direction of the polarizer and the orientation of the fast axis of the first and second liquid crystal cells are oriented in a manner that allows the linearly polarized light provided by the polarizer to be transformed into any state of polarization at the output of the second liquid crystal cell. The present invention provides full coverage of the Poincaré sphere.

Abstract: In order to calibrate an apparatus for measuring the polarization dependent loss of an optical device under test, a set of nominal polarization states of incident light are generated with a polarization generator. The incident light is then passed through a dot-product conserving polarization rotator at a first setting. A transmission characteristic is measured through a standard optical component with a known polarization dependent loss value for each polarization state. This step is repeated for a number of different settings of the polarization rotator. A polarization dependent loss value is calculated for the standard optical component based on the measured transmission characteristics at each polarization rotator setting. The calculated polarization dependent loss values are then processed to generate an aggregate error value.

Abstract: The state of polarization of an input light beam is tested by determining four components of a Stokes vector of the light. These correspond to components of the light in three polarization states, S.sub.1 : linear horizontal, S.sub.2 : linear at 45 degrees, S.sub.3 : right circularly polarized, and S.sub.0 the total power. It is not necessary to filter out these components directly and measure their powers. In accordance with this invention it is more convenient to measure the powers in three arbitrary polarization states that have known relationships to each other, and, also measure the total power. The actual Stokes vector components is calculated from this information. Conveniently, a device having three polarization beam splitting surfaces and a prism provides a novel way in which to obtain the necessary information from an input beam so that a set of equations can be solved to determine the state of polarization the input beam.