Measuring the Optical Rotation Angle and Circular Dichroism of Anisotropic Optical Media Using a Heterodyne Polarimeter

Author

Yu-Lung Lo ; Chia-Chi Liao ; Chang-Ye Li ; Bo-Sung Shin ; Sang-Mae Lee

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Nat. Cheng Kung Univ., Tainan, Taiwan

Volume

31

Issue

8

fYear

2013

fDate

15-Apr-13

Firstpage

1255

Lastpage

1262

Abstract

A method is proposed for measuring the circular birefringence (CB) and circular dichroism (CD) properties of anisotropic optical samples using a heterodyne polarimeter and an electronic signal processing scheme. Importantly, the CB and CD properties of the sample are decoupled in the analytical model, and thus the accuracy of the measurement results is improved. Furthermore, the proposed method enables the CB and CD properties of the sample to be measured over the full range. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated by measuring the optical rotation angle and circular diattenuation of pure CB and CD samples and a composite sample with both CB and CD properties. The standard deviations of the optical rotation angle and circular dichroism are found to be 3.07× 10^-3 degrees and 9.3×10^-4 for a hybrid CD/CB sample, respectively.

Keywords

angular measurement; anisotropic media; birefringence; circular dichroism; optical information processing; optical rotation; optical variables measurement; polarimeters; analytical model; anisotropic optical media; anisotropic optical samples; circular birefringence properties measurement; circular diattenuation measurement; circular dichroism properties measurement; electronic signal processing; heterodyne polarimeter; optical rotation angle measurement; standard deviations; Adaptive optics; Geometrical optics; Optical filters; Optical mixing; Optical polarization; Optical retarders; Optical variables measurement; Circular birefringence; circular dichroism; optical rotation angle;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2013.2244849

Filename

6428583