Switchable bandwidth filter

Claim 1

A filter device for switching between bandwidth states of a beam of millimeter wavelength radiation, comprising: a plurality of stages of a material medium each having parallel input and output walls, and a pair of opposite sides, one of said pairs being horizontally and the other vertically disposed, each said medium being birefringent and having an optical axis and having at least two possible directions of orientation for said optic axis, and one of said directions being disposable parallel to the propagation of said beam of millimeter wavelength radiation; at least two pairs of electrodes for each medium, each of said pairs straddlingly adjacent a corresponding one of said media, each of said pairs of electrodes being generally plane-parallel with respect to each other and each of said pairs of electrodes being orthogonal to a different one of said two directions of said optic axis; and selective means for selectively providing electric power to selected ones of said pairs of electrodes and then to others of said pairs of electrodes, whereby an electric field is capable of establishment and disestablishment with respect to said material media and thereby effective for reorienting the optic axis of said material media from one direction to the other whereby the bandwidth of said millimeter wavelength radiation is discretely variable.

Claim 3

A method of switching between selected bandwidths of a beam of millimeter wavelength radiation, comprising the steps of: directing a beam of radiation having millimeter wavelength characteristics at a series of material media having parallel input and output walls, and a pair of opposite sides, said media being birefringent and having an optic axis and each having at least two possible directions of orientation for said optic axis, one of said directions being disposed in the direction of propagation of said beam of millimeter wavelength radiation; disposing at least two pairs of electrodes for each medium straddlingly adjacent said material medium, each of said pairs of electrodes being orthogonal to a different one of the directions of said optic axis; and applying an electric field to selected ones of said pairs of electrodes and thereby to said material medium for reorienting the said optic axis of said material medium from one direction to another, whereby the bandwidth of radiation passing through said material media is selectively variable.

Claim 4

A method of switching between selected bandwidths of a beam of millimeter wavelength radiation, comprising the steps of: directing a beam of radiation having millimeter wavelength characteristics at a series of material media having parallel input and output walls, and a pair of opposite sides, said media being birefringent and having an optic axis and each having at least two possible directions of orientation for said optic axis, one of said directions being disposed in the direction of propagation of said beam of millimeter wavelength radiation; disposing at least two pairs of electrodes for each medium straddlingly adjacent said material medium, each of said pairs of electrodes being orthogonal to a different one of the directions of said optic axis; and applying an electric field to selected ones of said pairs of electrodes and thereby to said material medium for reorienting the said optic axis of said material medium from one direction to another, whereby the bandwidth of radiation passing through said material media is selectively variable.