Optics and Optical Coatings


Polarizing plate beamsplitters are plates that have a polarizing coating. These transmit p-polarization and reflect s-polarization because the incoming monochromatic beam is at the Brewster angle.
These Polarizing beamsplitters consist of two right angle prisms. One of them is coated with dielectric multi-layer polarizing coating on the hypotenuse face.
Polarizing beamsplitters split a monochromatic beam entering at zero degree into p-polarization as transmitted and s-polarization as reflected radiation.
λ/4-retarders convert linearly polarized beams to circular and circular to linear. λ/2-retarders convert polarization direction arbitrarily.
Quartz waveplates are zero-order retardation plates composed of pairs of optically contacted crystalline quartz plates mounted on aluminum frames.
Quartz depolarizers convert linearly polarized input beams to unpolarized beams and are used upstream and downstream of measurement devices that must avoid polarization.