Note: Fast, small, accurate 90° rotator for a polarizer

David P Shelton; William M O'Donnell; James L Norton

doi:10.1063/1.3564911

Note: Fast, small, accurate 90° rotator for a polarizer

Rev Sci Instrum. 2011 Mar;82(3):036103. doi: 10.1063/1.3564911.

Authors

David P Shelton¹, William M O'Donnell, James L Norton

Affiliation

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-4002, USA.

PMID: 21456805
DOI: 10.1063/1.3564911

Abstract

A permanent magnet stepper motor is modified to hold a dichroic polarizer inside the motor. Rotation of the polarizer by 90° ± 0.04° is accomplished within 80 ms. This device is used for measurements of the intensity ratio for two orthogonal linear polarized components of a light beam. The two selected polarizations can be rapidly alternated to allow for signal drift compensation, and the two selected polarizations are accurately orthogonal.