Related papers: Precision polarimetry with real-time mitigation of…
We present an in-situ method to measure the birefringence of a single vacuum window by means of microwave spectroscopy on an ensemble of cold atoms. Stress-induced birefringence can cause an ellipticity in the polarization of an initially…
In this paper we present a review of the existing data on interferential mirror birefringence. We also report new measurements of two sets of mirrors that confirm that mirror phase retardation per reflection decreases when mirror…
A polarised light imaging microscopy with an addition of liquid crystal (LC) phase retarder was implemented to determine the birefringence of silk fibers with the high 2 micrometers spatial resolution. The measurement was carried out with…
Spectral and spatial fringes in polarized light are produced by the interference of transmitted and reflected waves at the interface between materials with different indexes of refraction. These instrumental artifacts can affect the…
Vacuum birefringence produces a differential phase between orthogonally polarized components of a weak electromagnetic probe in the presence of a strong electromagnetic field. Despite representing a hallmark prediction of quantum…
In any polarimetric measurement technique, enhancing the laser polarization change of a laser beam before it reaches the analyzer can help in improving the sensitivity. This can be performed using an optical component having a large linear…
Birefringence, the polarization-dependent splitting of light in anisotropic crystals, enables diverse optical phenomena and advanced functionalities such as optical communication, nonlinear optics, and quantum optics. However, conventional…
We present a scheme for active compensation of complex extrinsic polarization perturbations introduced into an optical system. Imaging polarimeter is used to measure the polarization state across a beam profile and a liquid crystal spatial…
Single-mode optical fibres exhibit a small but non-negligible birefringence that induces random polarisation rotations during light propagation. In classical interferometry these rotations give rise to polarisation-induced fading of the…
We present the current status and outlook of the optical characterization of the polarimeter at the Bir\'{e}fringence Magn\'etique du Vide (BMV) experiment. BMV is a polarimetric search for the QED predicted anisotropy of vacuum in the…
Vacuum polarization, an effect predicted nearly 70 years ago, is still yet to be directly detected despite significant experimental effort. Previous attempts have made use of large liquid-helium cooled electromagnets which inadvertently…
Common transparent polymer films such as cellophane and household tape are frequently used as examples of birefringent materials in textbooks and classroom demonstrations. Qualitatively, birefringence is often demonstrated by layering such…
A refractometry taking measuring of Brewster angles for birefringent materials is proposed. The technique is based on the angular scanning of the reflected power of p-polarized light and the determination of the two specific minimums at the…
Using the phenomena of linear and circular birefringence we propose a device that can alter general elliptical polarization of a beam by a predetermined amount, thereby allowing conversion between linearly-polarized light and circularly…
Although experimental efforts have been active for about 30 years now, a direct laboratory observation of vacuum magnetic birefringence, an effect due to vacuum fluctuations, still needs confirmation. Indeed, the predicted birefringence of…
Star test polarimetry is an imaging polarimetry technique in which an element with spatially-varying birefringence is placed in the pupil plane to encode polarization information into the point-spread function (PSF) of an imaging system. In…
A birefringent universe could show itself through a rotation of the plane of polarisation of the cosmic microwave background photons. This is usually investigated using polarisation $B$ modes, which is degenerate with miscalibration of the…
A method for measuring the phase retardation and birefringence of crystalline quartz wave plate in the ultraviolet and visible spectrum is demonstrated using spectroscopic ellipsometer. After the calibration of the crystalline quartz plate,…
We consider signals of photon-photon scattering in laser-based, low energy experiments. In particular, we consider the ellipticity induced on a probe beam by a strong background field, and compare it with a recent worldline expression for…
Sensing chirality is of fundamental importance to many fields, including analytical and biological chemistry, pharmacology, and fundamental physics. Recent developments have extended optical chiral sensing using microwaves, fs pulses,…