Circular Polarizers

Circular polarizers block all photons rotating in one direction while allowing those rotating in the opposite direction to pass. These optical polarizers are assemblies that consist of a linear polarizer and a wave retarder, usually a quarter waveplate or half waveplate. Linear polarizers are optical components that transmit light waves along one axis and absorb them along the other. The transmitting and absorbing axes of linear polarization are oriented at 90 degrees to each other. Waveplates and retardation plates are optical elements with two principal axes, one slow and one fast, which resolve an incident polarized beam into two mutually perpendicular polarized beams. Specialty circular polarizers are also available.