A simple, inexpensive photoelastic modulator

Kyle J. Braun; Christian R. Lytle; James A. Kavanaugh; James A. Thielen; Adam S. Green

doi:10.1119/1.2978001

A simple, inexpensive photoelastic modulator

Kyle J. Braun, Christian R. Lytle, James A. Kavanaugh, James A. Thielen, Adam S. Green

Division of Medical Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

A block of birefringent gelatin acts as a variable retarder when driven harmonically by a speaker coil and can be used to vary the polarization of a laser beam sinusoidally. We model this effect with Mueller matrices and show that the gelatin behaves much like a commercial photoelastic modulator and is suitable for a variety of polarimetry experiments in an advanced undergraduate optics course.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	13-19
Number of pages	7
Journal	American Journal of Physics
Volume	77
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1119/1.2978001
State	Published - 2009

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10.1119/1.2978001

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abstract = "A block of birefringent gelatin acts as a variable retarder when driven harmonically by a speaker coil and can be used to vary the polarization of a laser beam sinusoidally. We model this effect with Mueller matrices and show that the gelatin behaves much like a commercial photoelastic modulator and is suitable for a variety of polarimetry experiments in an advanced undergraduate optics course.",

author = "Braun, {Kyle J.} and Lytle, {Christian R.} and Kavanaugh, {James A.} and Thielen, {James A.} and Green, {Adam S.}",

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AU - Green, Adam S.

PY - 2009

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N2 - A block of birefringent gelatin acts as a variable retarder when driven harmonically by a speaker coil and can be used to vary the polarization of a laser beam sinusoidally. We model this effect with Mueller matrices and show that the gelatin behaves much like a commercial photoelastic modulator and is suitable for a variety of polarimetry experiments in an advanced undergraduate optics course.

AB - A block of birefringent gelatin acts as a variable retarder when driven harmonically by a speaker coil and can be used to vary the polarization of a laser beam sinusoidally. We model this effect with Mueller matrices and show that the gelatin behaves much like a commercial photoelastic modulator and is suitable for a variety of polarimetry experiments in an advanced undergraduate optics course.

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JO - American Journal of Physics

JF - American Journal of Physics

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A simple, inexpensive photoelastic modulator

Abstract

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