Achromatic Wave Plates AWP Zero Order Waveplate
Product description:
An Achromatic Waveplate, AWP, is similar to a Zero-Order Waveplate,
which is made from two pieces of Crystal Quartz except that the AWP
is composed of one piece of Crystal Quartz and one piece of
Magnesium Fluoride, MgF2.
As a kind of optical elemtents, achromatic waveplate is similar to
Zero-order waveplate except that the two plates are made from
different materials, such as crystal quartz and magnesium fluoride.
Since the dispersion of the birefringence can be different for the
two materials, it is possible to specify the retardation values at
a wavelength range.
Unlike standard waveplates, Achromatic Waveplates (Retarders)
provide a constant phase shift independent of the wavelength of
light that is used. This wavelength independence is achieved by
using two different birefringent crystalline materials.
Both of these materials are birefringent, however, by proper
matching of the birefringent changes in one material with those of
the second, retardation changes are minimized as the wavelength
changes. This phenomenon produces a waveplate whose change in
retardation is extremely small for large variations in wavelength.
Hence, the retardation of the resulting waveplate can be made to
low sensitivity to wavelength change. In other words, it can be used at a broad-band wavelength range. Based on the contact methods of two plates, we classify the
achromatic waveplate to two types: Airspaced and Cemented.
Features of Achromatic wave plate are wide spectral bandwidth, low
temperature sensitivity and large sizes available. Besides,
Lambda/4 achromatic wave plate and lambda/2 achromatic wave plate
are available.
