title: Simultaneous measurement of retardance and fast axis angle of a quarter-wave plate using one photoelastic modulator.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Aijun
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Fanyue
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Linglin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Huijie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang