Wave-plate retarders based on overhead transparencies.
We describe procedures for constructing inexpensive wave plates of desired retardation out of ordinary commercially available transparencies. Various relevant properties of the transparencies are investigated: the dependence of retardation on rotation of the film, tilt, wavelength, position, and temperature. A transparency is typically a multiple-order wave plate with the difference of in-plane refractive indices of approximately 0.07 and a temperature dependence of retardation approximately 0.02 rad/K. Constructing wave plates out of combinations of transparency sheets is also explored.
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA. isavukov@lanl.gov
Igor
I
Savukov
Dmitry
D
Budker