Real-time measurement of retardation of eighth-wave plate independent of fast-axis direction

• 来源期刊: 中国光学快报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2012,（9）
• 页码范围: 35-37
• 页数: 3页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.3788/COL201210.091201

摘要

A real-time measurement method for the retardation of an eighth-wave plate is proposed.The collimated laser beam is split using a Glan Taylor polarizer with two side escape windows.The reflected sub-beam is detected using a detector,whereas the transmitted sub-beam passes through the quarter-wave plate and the eighth-wave plate of interest.Then,it is reflected by the mirror and passes reversely through the eighth- and quarter-wave plates.Finally,it is analyzed using the Glan Taylor polarizer and detected using another detector.With two detection signals,the retardation is resolved and found to be independent of the fast-axis direction,initial intensity,and circuit parameters.In the experiment,a crystal quartz sample is measured at different fast-axis angles.The standard deviation of the retardation is 0.9°.The usefulness of the method is verified.