How to obtain a circularly polarised light from an unpolarised light source
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You can produce linearly polarised light by propagating a beam through the Glan-Thompson polariser. If you direct the polarized output through the quarter wave plate with the fast axis at 45 degrees to the plane of polarization, the output will be close to circularly polarized.
The retardation of the wave plate does depend slightly on the exact wavelength and the angle of incidence, so you may wish take this into account if you need a polarization state which is precisely circular, or if the light from the Glan-Thompson is not well collimated.
You do not need a narrow band light source unless retardation errors of order 1/200 wave are significant.
The retardation of the wave plate does depend slightly on the exact wavelength and the angle of incidence, so you may wish take this into account if you need a polarization state which is precisely circular, or if the light from the Glan-Thompson is not well collimated.
You do not need a narrow band light source unless retardation errors of order 1/200 wave are significant.
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