Method of residual birefringence measurements in interferometer with increased sensitivity

Monika Borwińska; Władysław A. Woźniak

doi:10.1117/12.2009357

18 December 2012 Method of residual birefringence measurements in interferometer with increased sensitivity

Proceedings Volume 8697, 18th Czech-Polish-Slovak Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics; 869706 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2009357
Event: 18th Czech-Polish-Slovak Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 2012, Ostravice, Czech Republic

Abstract

We present a new method for the measurement of a residual birefringence in a polariscopic interferometer. Measured medium inserted into the setup can cause the changes in the polarization state of the propagated beam. Specific orientation of the elements (i.e. the analyzer and the phase retarder) modifies the setup response to the small changes of the azimuth and ellipticity angles of the propagated beam - the sensitivity of the setup is highly increased within the limited measuring range. The sensitivity and the measuring range of the setup can be adjusted by proper mutual orientation of the setup elements. Even though the measurement requires the analysis of the low contrast interferograms, what can be difficult, the application of the Fourier analysis allows the calculations for the interferogram contrast lower than in case of classical interference pattern shift tracking. In the present paper both theoretical considerations and experimental results taken from the experimental model setup are presented. Hundredfold increase in sensitivity was obtained in the presented experiments, which allowed the measurement of phase difference introduced by the birefringent medium with an accuracy of one hundredth degree.

Citation Download Citation

Monika Borwińska and Władysław A. Woźniak "Method of residual birefringence measurements in interferometer with increased sensitivity", Proc. SPIE 8697, 18th Czech-Polish-Slovak Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 869706 (18 December 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2009357

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