Polarization Optics

FOCtek manufactures a wide range of polarization optics, include Polarizer (Glan Taylor, Glan Laser, Glan Thompson, Wollaston and Rochon), polarization beam combiner, waveplate, polarization rotator, Depolarizer by adopting Birefringent crystals of a-BBO, calcite, YVO4, quartz and MgF2.

a-BBO is characterized by large birefringent coefficient and wide transmission window from 189nm to 3500nm, particularly suitable for high power UV polarizer (200-300nm). But, its high hygroscopic susceptibility increases the difficulty of fabricating.

Calcite is a natural minded crystal and the most common crystals for polarizers used as visible and near IR polarizers. Defects of natural minded crystal, such as bubbles, striae, optical inhomogeneity and stress birefringence, cause degradation of polarization and transmission loss . That is why the extinction of the polarizer is not as high as synthetically grown material YVO4, a-BBO.

YVO4 crystal has been widely used in fiber optical components due to its large birefringence, good physical and favorable mechanical properties. Since the crystal has high transmission from 500 to 3500 nm, it is recommended to use YVO4 polarizer for IR application.

Crystal Quartz has optical activity, It rotates the polarization plane of linearly polarized beam when the beamtravel along the crystal optic axis. Because of its low birefringence, it is not feasible to fabricate Glan type polarizer, but suitable for Rochon or wollaston. And it is a excelent material for waveplate.

MgF2 Crystal has very wide transmission range from 110 nm to 8500nm. It is the best material for DUV application. Same reason of its low birefringence, MgF2 is not feasible to fabricate Glan type polarizer, but suitable for Rochon or wollaston. MgF2 is also used for waveplate, and commonly works together with quartz to make achromatic waveplate

Comparison of main properties of the materials listed below:

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