title: Polarisation control through an optical feedback technique and its application in precise measurements.
abstract: We present an anisotropic optical feedback technique for controlling light polarisation. The technique is based on the principle that the effective gain of a light mode is modulated by the magnitude of the anisotropic feedback. A new physical model that integrates Lamb's semi-classical theory and a model of the equivalent cavity of a Fabry-Perot interferometer is developed to reveal the physical nature of this technique. We use this technique to measure the phase retardation, optical axis, angle, thickness and refractive index with a high precision of λ/1380, 0.01°, 0.002°, 59 nm and 0.0006, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Opto-electronic Engineering, College of Opto-electronic Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China.
authors.forename: Wenxue
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Shulian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xingwu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Long