Experimental characterization of a commercial wire grid polarizer as a polarizing beam splitter at 1.55 µm wavelength

Abstract

A commercially available wire grid plate polarizer (Meadowlark IR VersaLight) is experimentally characterized for use as a polarizing beam splitter with variable incidence angles up to ± 50°. Five elements of this type are tested, and found to have an average pass-state transmittance of approximately 94% ± 2% for incidence angles up to ±30° and a block-state reflectance of approximately 92% ± 2% for all measured incidence angles. Polarizer orientation (with compensating adjustment of input linear polarization state) and propagation direction through the device were each found to cause no more than a 2% difference of transmission/reflection efficiency for incidence angles up to ±30°. Overall, this device was found to demonstrate high efficiency in both pass state transmittance and block state reflectance over a range of incidence angles and polarizer orientations, confirming its usability as a versatile polarizing beam splitter.