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Field rotation and polarization properties of the Porro prism
Yi-Dong Liu1, Chunqing Gao, Xiaoqing Qi
1Department of Optical-Electronics, School of Information Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
Abstract:
We investigate the use of the Porro prism and its application as a beam rotator. The Porro prism can reverse a light beam, and the reversed beam is rotated when the Porro prism rotates. As a result of the two total internal reflections in the Porro prism, the field polarization is changed. We present a schematic setup to realize beam rotation without polarization change and power variation. The setup includes a rotatable Porro prism accompanied by a polarized beam splitter, a quarter-wave plate, and a phase compensator. This beam rotator is useful in the measurement of the orbital angular momentum of a helical beam.
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