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Thin Film Polarizers

Polarization optics is important for both intra and extra cavity use. By having high contrast thin film polarizers in their design, laser engineers can save weight and volume within their devices without influencing the output. Compared with polarizing prism, polarizer has larger incident angle and can be made with larger apertures. Compared with polarizers made from birefringent crystals, the advantage of thin film polarizers is that they can be made in very large sizes, therefore can work in a laser device with high power or energy.

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Product Details

Thin Film Polarizers are made from composed materials which include a polarizing film, an inner protective film, a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, and an outer protective film. Polarizer is used to change un-polarized beam into linear polarized beam. When the light passes through the polarizer, one of the orthogonal polarization components is strongly absorbed by the polarizer and the other component is weakly absorbed, thus natural light is converted into linearly polarized light. Thin Film Polarizers

WISOPTIC Specifications - Thin Film Polarizers

Material	BK7, UVFS
Diameter Tolerance	+0.0/-0.15 mm
Thickness Tolerance	± 0.1 mm
Clear Aperture	> 90% of central area
Surface Quality [S/D]	< 20/10 [S/D]
Transmitted Wavefront Distortion	λ/10 @ 632.8 nm
Parallelism	≤ 30”
Extinction Ratio (Tp/Ts)	> 200:1
Coating	High LDT coating upon request
Laser Damage Threshold	10 J/cm² @ 1064 nm, 10 ns, 10 Hz

Comparison of Different Materials of Polarizers

	YVO4	Calcite	α-BBO	Quartz
Transparency Band	500-4000 nm	350-2300 nm	220-3000 nm	200-2300 nm
Crystal Type (uniaxial)	Positive no=na=nb, ne=nc	Negative no=na=nb, ne=nc	Negative no=na=nb, ne=nc	Positive no=na=nb, ne=nc
Mohs Hardness	5	3	4.5	7
Thermal Expansion Coefficient	aa=4.43x10-6/K ac=11.37x10-6/K	aa=24.39x10-6/K ac=5.68x10-6/K	aa=4x10-6/K ac=36x10-6/K	aa=6.2x10-6/K ac=10.7x10-6/K