Re: circular polarization selective beam splitter

jesey wrote:
As I know, there are many polarization beam splitter, which transmit p-
polarization, and reflect s-polarization.

But is there any beam splitter whichi transmit right circular-
polarization, and reflect left circular-polarization?

If there is, how does it work?

And how much does it cost compared to the general PBS?

You could do this by adapting any of the ordinary crystal polarizer designs, replacing linear birefringence by circular birefringence(usually called _optical activity_).

For instance, you could make a circular polarizer analogue of a Wollaston by using two triangular glass cells, one containing a solution of normal (levorotatory) sucrose and one containing dextrorotatory sucrose. If you used mixed-isomer (racemic) sucrose for one of the cells, you'd make the circular-polarizer equivalent of a Rochon prism.

There are two problems with this sort of idea in real life. Firstly, optical activity is generally very weak compared with linear birefringence, which means you could get only very small angular separation between the beams. Secondly, optical activity is highly dispersive, often varying by a factor of 2:1 or more over the optical region. This means that prisms relying on optical activity would work as designed only in a narrow wavelength region.

A third problem is that most optically active solids are also birefringent, so that it's quite difficult to get a pure circular birefringence. The circular birefringence of quartz is on the order of 1% as strong as its linear birefringence, for example.

You're generally much better off using waveplates to convert to linear polarization, use a normal polarizing beamsplitter, and then convert back to circular.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs
.

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