Waveplates

Waveplates, also known as retardation plates, are birefringent optical elements.

The two principal axes of birefringence are referred to as “slow” and “fast”, indicating the relative speeds of propagation of the respective linear polarization through the medium. The polarization of an incident beam may be manipulated by judicious choice of the retardation and the relative angle of the incident polarization to the principle planes of the optic.

We offer a wide range of waveplates for many different uses. Our supply covers:

Achromatic Waveplates

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Low Order Waveplates

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Zero Order Waveplates

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True Zero Order Waveplates

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MID-IR Waveplates

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Mounts for Waveplates

Verzögerungsplatte für mittleres IR mit Halterung

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In addition to single components, we will gladly provide functional subunits according to your needs. For example, we can supply isolators comprising a quarter-waveplate and polarizing beamsplitter cube mounted together in a single drop-in unit.

Choosing the right waveplate for your application can be a bewildering task, as we offer a wide range for many different uses.

Feel free to call us for assistance. Our experienced staff is only too pleased to help you with the decision process.

Specifications

The specification limits of waveplates depend on the materials chosen and the type of waveplate. As a general overview we present here the specification limits of our zero order waveplates.

Specification	Available Quality
Wavefront distortion	λ/8
Retardation tolerance	λ/500
Parallelism	1 arcsec
Surface quality	20-10 S/D (DIN: 5/2 x 0.1)

Quality Assurance

We take quality control very seriously: we rely on accurate, widely recognized measurement systems for testing our optics. The following table indicates the accuracy of measurement for the most relevant parameters.

Surface figure: λ/20
Angle: 0,5 arcsec
Radius: 0,01%
Focal length: 0,03%-0,3%
Centration: +/-0,2µm or +/-2 arcsec
Wavelength: +/-0,3nm (190-1100nm)