1 July 2010 Three-element variable retarder for monochromatic light
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Abstract
A technique is described for the continuous variation of the resultant retardance and effective privileged directions of a cascaded system of three optical retarders. The system consists of a rotatable retarder sandwiched between two fixed, identical, parallel retarders. The primary aim of the study was to develop a simple technique for a variable retarder for monochromatic light, but the robustness of the system for a narrow band on either side of the design wavelength was also studied. Simulated plots show that a linear variation of the effective retardance from 0 to 2Π is achievable, as is a linear variation of the effective azimuth from 0 to Π. It is also shown that these two parameters may be varied independently of each other.
©(2010) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Arijit Saha, Kallol Bhattacharya, and Ajoy Chakraborty "Three-element variable retarder for monochromatic light," Optical Engineering 49(7), 073004 (1 July 2010). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3462065
Published: 1 July 2010
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KEYWORDS
Wave plates

Liquid crystals

Optical engineering

Polarization

Birefringence

Commercial off the shelf technology

Crystals

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