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Waveplates and Polarization.
By Ray Williamson
It does wonderful things with light and you know it will be in demand. You’ve folded all your optics into a neat, attractive, rugged little box using beamsplitters and mirrors.
But what about polarization? If you use non-polarizing beamsplitters at 50% per pass in any direction, you’ll lose over 75% of your signal in a round trip, and you’ll lose more when you go through a linear polarizer to separate the one polarization you want. If you use polarizing beamsplitters, the beam that is directed to your next mirror could be S or P or something in between – and P will usually reflect less than the S. And after the mirror, it will probably be elliptical.
What if you could make all your mirrors see S-polarization, keep all the light of either polarization through each beamsplitter, and keep the polarization pure and easy to separate everywhere? Even if they’re two wavelengths? Or three? Does such a device exist?
Yes, it’s called a waveplate.
But, you don’t have room for much more in your neat little box? No problem – waveplates are very thin. They do everything they need to do in 0.5 mm of path length or less, passively.
But, you need to control up to three different wavelengths of different polarizations all in the same path? Can do. Such dual or triple wavelength waveplates might take an extra mm or two. Just ask Tower Optical’s sales engineers for a quote; even if we’ve never made this combination before we can usually design one specially for you.
But, your beam is bigger than a few mm? Tower Optical is a world pioneer in larger waveplates. We offer large waveplates up to 100 mm – and they’re still very thin.
Tower Optical specializes in waveplate of all kinds. We have an extensive stock for quick delivery and can meet your unique needs with custom waveplates that we’ll design to your specifications. And yes, besides waveplates we make mirrors, beamsplitters, microprisms, and other precision optics. Call us at (561) 740-2525 or email at sales@toweroptical.com.
