Corner cube depolarizer

A method for generating a completely depolarized light beam, comprising:

• (a) a corner cube;
• (b) a collimated linearly polarized input light beam irradiating said corner cube having
• i. a tilt angle σ′ rotated about a tilt-axis having an orientation angle
• (90°+θ) in said corner cube wherein the tilt angle σ′ is between the laser beam path and the major diagonal of said corner cube, and in combination
• ii. the linear polarization orientation of said input light beam is rotated by the angle ψ with respect to said corner cube orientation
• wherein the inter-related parameters σ′, θ, ψ have been predetermined to yield the depolarized state conditions;
• (c) a polarized retro-reflected light beam from said corner cube;
• (d) a bi-directional beam director interposed between the input light beam source and said corner cube re-directs said retro-reflected beam from said corner cube to the output port of said beam director thereby steering away said retro-reflected beam from said input light beam;
• and
• (e) a spatial averaging means for combining the polarization states of said retro-reflected beam from said corner cube via said output port of said beam director thereby generating said depolarized output beam having zero-valued Stokes polarization parameters S1″=S2″=S3″=0.