Abstract

The freespace, nonbirefringent, polarization interferometer is one of the most versatile optical instruments. It can be used as (1) a limitless variable phase retarder, (2) an analog or binary polarization modulator, (3) a global polarization state generator of light of a controlled degree of polarization, (4) a depolarizer, (5) an ellipsometer of transmissive or reflective samples, and (6) an instrument for measuring the coherence and spectral properties of light sources when used in conjuction with a complete polarization-state detector. A brief account of each of these applications is presented.

© 1992 Optical Society of America