PH - 201 (Optics)

Assignment 2

Tasnuva Tabassum
Roll : RK-018-058
Group 8
Department of Physics, University of Dhaka
Q. Briefly explain the mechanism of a quarter wave
retarder.

Answer: A wave plate or retarder is an optical device that alters the

polarization state of a light wave travelling through it. It works by shifting
the phase between two perpendicular polarization components of the
light wave. It can be thought of an advancer, as one component lags
behind and the other component leads. Thus it is actually a relative
phase shifter and it advances or retards the phase of one of the two
orthogonal electric fields by some desired amounts.

A quarter-wave plate or a quarter-wave retarder converts linearly

polarized light into circularly polarized light and vice versa. It can be
used to produce elliptical polarization as well.

A quarter-wave plate consists of a carefully adjusted thickness of a

birefringent material such that the light associated with the larger index
of refraction is retarded by 90° in phase (a quarter wavelength) with
respect to that associated with the smaller index. The material is cut so
that the optic axis is parallel to the front and back plates of the plate. Any
linearly polarized light which strikes the plate will be divided into two
components with different indices of refraction.
 Fig: Two waves differing by a quarter-phase shift for one axis.

Consider a linearly polarized wave is incident on the crystal. This wave

can be written as
where the f and s axes are the quarter-wave plate's fast and slow axes,
respectively, the wave propagates along the z axis, and Ef and Es are
real. The effect of the quarter-wave plate is to introduce a phase shift
term eiπ/2 = i between the f and s components of the wave, so that upon
exiting the crystal the wave is now given by

The wave is now elliptically polarized.

If the axis of polarization of the incident wave is chosen so that it makes

a 45° with the fast and slow axes of the waveplate, then Ef = Es ≡ E, and
the resulting wave upon exiting the waveplate is

and the wave is circularly polarized.

If the axis of polarization of the incident wave is chosen so that it makes

a 0° with the fast or slow axes of the waveplate, then the polarization will
not change, so remains linear. If the angle is in between 0° and 45° the
resulting wave has an elliptical polarization.

One of the useful applications of this device is to convert linearly

polarized light to circularly polarized light and vice versa. This is done by
adjusting the plane of the incident light so that it makes a 45° angle with
the optic axis. This gives equal amplitude o- and e-waves. When the
o-wave is slower, as in calcite, the o-wave will fall behind by 90° in
phase, producing circularly polarized light.
Figure: Conversion of linearly polarized light to circularly polarized light by a
quarter-wave retarder.

Here, if linearly polarized light is incident on a quarter-wave plate at 45°

to the optic axis, then the light is divided into two equal electric field
components. One of these is retarded by a quarter wavelength by the
plate. This produces circularly polarized light. Incident circularly
polarized light will be changed to linearly polarized light.
Quarter-wave plates are usually made of quartz, mica or organic
polymeric plastics. In any case, the thickness of the birefringent material
must satisfy the expression

Where, is the relative optical path length difference and

λ0 is the vacuum wavelength of the light and m=0,1,2,3.......

Quarter wave retarders are used in optical isolators, optical pumps and
EO Modulators.