Overview: A Rochon Prism is a type of polarizer. It is made from two prisms of a
birefringent material such as crystal quartz and YVO4 which are
cemented together. Rochon Prisms split an arbitrarily polarized input beam into two
orthogonally polarized output beams. The ordinary ray remains on
the same optical axis as the input beam, while the extraordinary
ray deviates by an angle, which depends on the wavelength of the
light and the material of the prism (see the Beam Deviation graphs
in the table to the right). The output beams have a high
polarization extinction ratio of >10 000:1 for the
quartz prism and >100 000:1 for the YVO4 prism. Rochon Prims are used for applications where small beam separations
are required. General Specifications of Rochon Prism Polarizer: | Material | Crystal Quartz, YVO4 | | Wavelength Range | Quartz: 400-2300nm; YVO4: 500-4000nm | | Extinction Ratio | Quartz: <5x10-4; YVO4: <5x10-5 | | Surface Quality | 20/10 scratch and dig | | Wavefront Distortion | <λ/4@632.8nm | | Beam Deviation | <3 arc minutes | | Damage Threshold | >5W/cm2CW, 1064nm | | Coating | Single Layer MgF2 | | Mount | Black Anodized Aluminium |
Standard Products of Rochon Prism Polarizer: | Part Number | Material | Wavelength (nm) | Angular Field (°) | CA (mm) | Mount (mm) | AR Coating | | RHP-Q-1-08 | Quartz | 400-2300 | 1.0@980nm | 8.0 | φ25.4X26.0 | MgF2 | | RHP-Q-1-10 | Quartz | 400-2300 | 1.0@980nm | 10.0 | φ25.4X28.0 | MgF2 | | RHP-Q-1-12 | Quartz | 400-2300 | 1.0@980nm | 12.7 | φ25.4X33.0 | MgF2 | | RHP-Q-1-15 | Quartz | 400-2300 | 1.0@980nm | 15.0 | φ30.0X38.0 | MgF2 | | RHP-Q-1-20 | Quartz | 400-2300 | 1.0@980nm | 20.0 | φ38.0X48.0 | MgF2 | | RHP-Y-6-08 | YVO4 | 500-4000 | 6.0@1550nm | 8.0 | φ25.4X17.0 | MgF2 | | RHP-Y-6-10 | YVO4 | 500-4000 | 6.0@1550nm | 10.0 | φ25.4X19.0 | MgF2 | | RHP-Y-6-12 | YVO4 | 500-4000 | 6.0@1550nm | 12.7 | φ25.4X21.0 | MgF2 |
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