Systems and methods of polarization-time coding are disclosed. One method includes encoding information in orthogonal polarizations of light and correlated information in multiple time slots, and transmitting the information using the orthogonal polarizations in the time slots. Another method includes receiving a first input pair which specifies a first polarization state and a second input pair containing which specifies a second polarization state; transforming each input pair according to a matrix specifying a conjugate operation to produce four output pairs. The method further includes transmitting at a first time the first output pair using the first polarization state and the third output pair using the second polarization state. The method further includes transmitting at a second time the second output pair using the first polarization state and the fourth output pair using the second polarization state.