Article Abstracts | February 2008
The complete article appears in the February 2008 issue of Photonics Spectra. If you do not have a copy of this issue,
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A Preference for High-Power Polarizers
New assembly and thin-film coating techniques are producing optical components for
high-energy applications.
by Emily Kubacki, Precision Photonics Corp.
As laser energies have increased throughout the years, the selection of appropriate polarization components has become more limited. Until recently, if a system was running greater than about 1 J/cm
2, the only options were air-spaced beamsplitter cubes or Brewster angle plate polarizers, both of which require fairly complicated beam paths and alignment.
Fortunately, as coating technologies and assembly techniques have improved, so have the selection and quality of high-energy polarizers. Three types of components using new designs and advanced techniques in both assembly and thin-film coating have become available for high-energy applications from the UV through the visible and NIR: epoxy-free beamsplitter cubes, single-element crystal polarizers and non-shifting thin-film plate polarizers...
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