title: Permanent magnets for Faraday rotators inspired by the design of the magic sphere.
abstract: Faraday polarization rotators are commonly used in laser experiments. Most Faraday materials have a nonnegligible absorption, which is a limiting factor for high power laser optical isolators or for intracavity optical diodes. By using a stronger magnetic field and a shorter length of Faraday material, one can obtain the same polarization rotation and a reduced absorption. In this paper, we describe two permanent magnet arrangements that are easy to build and produce magnetic fields up to 1.7 T, substantially more than commonly used. The field homogeneity is largely sufficient for a 30 dB isolation ratio. We finally discuss the prospects for producing even larger fields with permanent magnets.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Collisions, Agrégats, Réactivité, UMR 5589, CNRS - Université de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, Institut de Recherche sur les Systemes Atomiques et Moleculaires Complexes, F-31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Trénec
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Volondat
authors.forename: Orphée
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Cugat
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vigué