CircularPolarizingBeamSplitter

class hcipy.optics.CircularPolarizingBeamSplitter(wavelength=1)[source]

Bases: OpticalElement

A circular polarizing beam splitter that accepts one wavefront and returns two linearly polarized wavefronts.

The circular polarizing beam splitter is a combination of a quarter-wave plate and a polarizing beam splitter. The quarter-wave plate rotation angle is 45 degrees and the polarizing beam-splitter rotation angle is zero degrees. Therefore, the first of the returned wavefronts will have a linear polarization state with an electric field equal to the amount of left-circular polarization in the incoming wavefront. The second wavefront will be perpendicular to the first and with electric field equal to the amount of right-circular polarization in the incoming wavefront.

Parameters:
polarization_anglescalar or Field

The polarization angle of the polarizer.

Attributes Summary

mueller_matrices

Returns the Mueller matrices of the two Jones matrices.

Methods Summary

backward(wavefront)

Propagate the wavefront backwards through the CBS.

forward(wavefront)

Propgate the wavefront through the CBS.

Attributes Documentation

mueller_matrices

Returns the Mueller matrices of the two Jones matrices.

Methods Documentation

backward(wavefront)[source]

Propagate the wavefront backwards through the CBS.

Not possible, will raise error.

forward(wavefront)[source]

Propgate the wavefront through the CBS.

Parameters:
wavefrontWavefront

The wavefront to propagate.

Returns:
wf_1Wavefront

The wavefront propagated through a quarter-wave plate at 45 degrees and a polarizer 0 degrees.

wf_2Wavefront

The wavefront propagated through a quarter-wave plate at 45 degrees and a polarizer 90 degrees.