Superpolarizers that exceed the law of Malus

All known polarizers operate via a separation of orthogonal electric field components, one of which is subsequently discarded. As a result, 50% of the unpolarized incident light is wasted in the process of conversion to polarized light. We demonstrate a new method by which the optical power in the ordinarily discarded component is used as the pump to amplify the retained component in a nonlinear amplifier. We achieve greater than 50% throughput. These new polarizers are self-organizing in that they form internal gratings which, based only on the phase relationship between the two components, best optimize the transfer of power to the desired component.