445 nm Wave Rotator Plate 90°

About the 445 nm Wave Rotator Plate 90°

• Cost-effective and easier to align alternative to traditional polarization half wave retarders (λ/2 waveplates)
• Can be used with a PBS cube for polarization combining
• V-AR coating allows transmission > 99% (typ.) around 445 nm

Half wave polarization rotators function by rotating the polarization axis of the linearly polarized beam of light by 90 degrees (lambda/2) near the design wavelength.

Polarization rotator plates are an excellent and a far lower-cost alternative to a waveplate retarder. However, unlike traditional half waveplate retarders, the rotation of the polarization is independent of the angle of the optic about the z-axis (light propagation axis). This makes alignment much simpler compared to working with a half waveplate retarder.

Our half-wave polarization rotators are commonly used to combine beams in conjunction with a polarizing beamsplitter (PBS) cube designed for ~445 nm light. This is a cost-effective means to effectively double the power in an optical system without an increase in beam size or beam divergence resulting in a loss of etendue.

Although the design wavelength is 445 nm, this product may be used over the range of 440 nm – 473 nm (including the wavelengths 442 nm, 445 nm, 450 nm, 462 nm, and 465 nm) with minimal loss of efficiency. This polarization plate has dimensions of 15 x 15 mm with a nominal thickness of 5 mm, making it suitable for large or multiple beams adjoined by “knife edging”.

Opt Lasers also offers half-wave polarization rotator plates for wavelengths near 525 nm and 638 nm, as well as PBS cubes at the 445 nm, 525 nm and 638 nm wavelengths.