Achromatization of Wollaston polarizing beam splitters

We describe the achromatization of Wollaston prisms to reduce the angular dispersion in the splitting angle. Analytical theory and ray-tracing modeling is presented. In an example application, a sixfold reduction in dispersion is achieved for wavelengths in the region 400 nm to 1.7 μm. Experimental...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOptics letters Vol. 36; no. 8; p. 1332
Main Authors Wong, Gerald, Pilkington, Roger, Harvey, Andrew R
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 15.04.2011
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Summary:We describe the achromatization of Wollaston prisms to reduce the angular dispersion in the splitting angle. Analytical theory and ray-tracing modeling is presented. In an example application, a sixfold reduction in dispersion is achieved for wavelengths in the region 400 nm to 1.7 μm. Experimental proof of concept is demonstrated, and in an example application, the spectral dispersion of extended images recorded through cascaded Wollaston prisms is shown to be reduced by an order of magnitude.
ISSN:1539-4794
DOI:10.1364/OL.36.001332