Measurements of linearly birefringent media parameters
using the optical vortex interferometer with the Wollaston
compensator
W A Woźniak and M Banach
Institute of Physics, Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław, Poland
E-mail: wladyslaw.wozniak@pwr.wroc.pl
Abstract. The classical Mach-Zehnder two-beam setup has been modernized with the use of the polarization elements to generate a set of optical vortices. The main element of these setups is the Wollaston compensator, which allows us to obtain a specific phase distribution (with polarization singularities) in one of the arms of our interferometer. We have confirmed the practical value of this setup by developing a method of birefringent media properties measurement. In the present paper we have started with developing the method for linearly birefringent media only, however, we hope that this method can be extended to elliptically birefringent media. The numerical analysis has confirmed our theoretical predictions. The mutual displacements measurements of the two OVs sublattices of different topological charges allowed us to calculate the basic birefringent media parameters: the azimuth angle of its first eigenvector and the phase difference between their eigenwaves. We also carried out some experiments which convinced us about the practical value of the proposed setups. Keywords. Birefringence; optical vortices; Wollaston compensator.
