A deformable reflective surface is disclosed that may be used with a retroreflector to provide a modulated retroreflector. The modulated retroreflector may be used in communication systems such as optical laser communication systems wherein an incident beam is reflected back to the source, as modulated by the modulated retroreflector. The deformable reflective surface uniformly reflects or disperses an incident light, depending on a deformation state of the surface. The different states of the deformable reflective surface permits modulation of the reflected beam, based on an input modulation signal that can contain voice or sensor data, for example. A sensor may be used to sense the incident beam and activate the retroreflector. The deformable reflective surface may be arranged to be switched between a diffractive reflective surface and a uniform reflective surface.