Birefringent laterally sheared beam splitter-Savart polariscope

Abstract

A laterally sheared beam splitter-savart polariscope was developed based on a single birefringent component. It is a key part in a novel polarization interference imaging spectrometer. The Savart polariscope consists of two paralled plates of calcite cut at an arbitrary angle to the optics axis and can split up a ray of light incident on the surface into an ordinary ray and an extraordinary ray. The output rays are paralled laterally sheared. The Savart polariscope is 25×25×12mm 3 in size. The lateral displacement is 1mm and transmissivity is about 90 percent in spectral range of 0.4~2.5 µm . A static polarization imaging spectrometer based on a Savart polariscope has advantage of ultra-compact size, wide field of view, high throughput and without any moving parts. The principle and construction of Savart polariscope are described, and the experimental results of the interference imaging spectrum are given.

Transmission ratio of the Glan–Taylor prism with deviated optical axes in the static polarization interference imaging spectrometer

“…Then the angle between e-wave and the optical axis can be calculated by cos  = k e × w = sin  e sin + cos  e cos (6) From Eqs. (1) and (2), we can get…”

“…In 1990, there have been many studies on polarization interference spectrometers. For example, Zhang et al [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] proposed the stationary polarization interference imaging spectrometer in 2000, and it possesses many merits such as stationary without mechanism motions, large field of view and high throughput.…”