A method for simultaneous measurement of the retardance and the fast axis angle of quarter-wave plate using one photoelastic modulator is presented. A laser beam passes through a polarizer, a photoelastic modulator, the quarter-wave plate to be measured, and an analyzer to be detected. Before and after the quarter-wave plate is rotated 45° at any initial fast axis direction, two detection signals are obtained to resolve simultaneously the retardance and the fast axis angle. In experiments, a quarter-wave plate was measured with fast axis angles from -89° to 90°. The average and the standard deviation of the retardances at different fast axis directions are respectively 89.50° and 0.17°. The maximum measurement deviation of the fast axis angle is 0.5°. The usefulness of the method is verified.

A lateral shearing interferometer with variable shearing for measurement of a small beam is proposed. The interferometer is composed of a polarization beam splitter, a thick birefringent plate, a quarter-wave plate, a mirror, and an image sensor. The shearing amount can be tiny by using the thick birefringent plate as the shear generator. The shearing amount of the interferometer can be continuously adjusted by rotating the thick birefringent plate, and 2D interferograms can be obtained by rotating the thick birefringent plate along the mutually perpendicular directions. The optical path difference is compensated with a double lateral shearing by using a quarter-wave plate and a mirror. The interferometer is verified by simulation and experiment; the experiment result is well coincident with the simulation result. The usefulness of the interferometer is verified.

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Real-time measurement of retardation and fast axis azimuth of wave plates is proposed. The light emitted from the laser passes through a circular polarizer and the sample successively. Then the beam is diffracted to three sub-beams by a grating. One sub-beam passes through a standard quarter-wave plate and then is split and analyzed by a Wollaston prism. The other two sub-beams are all directly split and analyzed by Wollaston prisms. Six intensities are simultaneously detected to calculate the retardation and the fast axis azimuth. Experiments show that for the quarter-wave plate the average and standard deviation of the retardation are 89.78°and 0.14°, respectively, and the maximum deviation of the fast axis azimuth is 0.6°; for the eighth-wave plate, the average and standard deviation of the retardation are 45.15°and 0.15°, respectively, and the maximum deviation of the fast axis azimuth is 0.53.

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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 o . The usefulness of the method is verified.