Measurement errors resulted from misalignment errors of the retarder in a rotating-retarder complete Stokes polarimeter

et al. 2015

Appl. Opt.

Composite waveplates consisting of two or more single waveplates are widely used in optical instruments, such as ellipsometry, polarimetry, cryptography, and photoelasticity. Accurate calibration of the misalignment errors in composite waveplates is of great importance (to minimize or correct the spurious artifacts in the final collected spectral data of these instruments induced by the misalignment errors). In this paper, we choose the fast axis azimuth and the rotary angle of composite waveplates as the detected characteristic parameters to calibrate the misalignment errors in composite waveplates. We first derive a general analytical model to describe the relationship between the mislignment errors and the characteristic parameters, and then propose an inverse approach to the calibration of the misalignment errors in composite waveplates. An experimental device based on the dual rotating-compensator Mueller matrix ellipsometry principle is set up to measure the characteristic parameters of composite waveplates. Both numerical simulations and experiments on an MgF(2)-MgF(2)-quartz triplate demonstrate the correctness and efficiency of the proposed approach. It is expected that the proposed approach can be readily extended to calibrate the misalignment errors in more complex composite waveplates.

Section: B Effect Of the Misalignment Errorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibration of misalignment errors in composite waveplates using Mueller matrix ellipsometry

Liu

et al. 2015

Appl. Opt.

“…They are indispensable elements in various optical systems, such as polarimetry/ellipsometry [1][2][3], interferometry [4,5], etc. and the performance of these systems heavily depends on the waveplate polarization properties [6][7][8][9][10]. Among these properties, retardance is an intrinsic and important optical characteristic of a birefringent waveplate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of the retardance of a birefringent waveplate at tilt incidence by Mueller matrix ellipsometer

Zhang

et al. 2017

J. Opt.

Birefringent waveplates are indispensable optical elements for polarization state modification in various optical systems. The retardance of a birefringent waveplate will change significantly when the incident angle of the light varies. Therefore, it is of great importance to study such field-of-view errors on the polarization properties, especially the retardance of a birefringent waveplate, for the performance improvement of the system. In this paper, we propose a generalized retardance formula at arbitrary incidence and azimuth for a general plane-parallel composite waveplate consisting of multiple aligned single waveplates. An efficient method and corresponding experimental setup have been developed to characterize the retardance versus the field-of-view angle based on a constructed spectroscopic Mueller matrix ellipsometer. Both simulations and experiments on an MgF 2 biplate over an incident angle of 0°-8°and an azimuthal angle of 0°-360°are presented as an example, and the dominant experimental errors are discussed and corrected. The experimental results strongly agree with the simulations with a maximum difference of 0.15°over the entire field of view, which indicates the validity and great potential of the presented method for birefringent waveplate characterization at tilt incidence.

“…The misalignment errors in the fast axes of the single wave plates introduce undesirable oscillations in the spectra of optical properties of the biplate, such as the retardance and the fast-axis azimuth [8][9][10][11][12]. These oscillations will further lead to spurious artifacts in the final collected data and degrade the measurement accuracy of the optical systems [13][14][15][16][17][18]. Therefore, it is of great importance to strictly align the optical axes of the biplate to eliminate these misalignment artifacts and to improve the optical performances of the biplate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accurate alignment of optical axes of a biplate using a spectroscopic Mueller matrix ellipsometer

Jiang

et al. 2016

Appl. Opt.

The biplate that consists of two single wave plates made from birefringent materials with their fast axes oriented perpendicular to each other is one of the most commonly used retarders in many optical systems. The internal alignment of the optical axes of the two single wave plates is a key procedure in the fabrication and application of a biplate to reduce the spurious artifacts of oscillations in polarization properties due to the misalignment error and to improve the accuracy and precision of the systems using such biplates. In this paper, we propose a method to accurately align the axes of an arbitrary biplate by minimizing the oscillations in the characteristic parameter spectra of the biplate detected by a spectroscopic Mueller matrix ellipsometer (MME). We derived analytical relations between the characteristic parameters and the misalignment error in the biplate, which helps us to analyze the sensitivity of the characteristic parameters to the misalignment error and to evaluate the alignment accuracy quantitatively. Experimental results performed on a house-developed MME demonstrate that the alignment accuracy of the proposed method is better than 0.01° in aligning the optical axes of a quartz biplate.