Polarization converter, optical system, method and applications
AssigneeUniversity of Rochester
InventorsAlexis K. Spilman, Thomas G. Brown
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Abstract
A stress-induced polarization converter in the form of a zero power optical window or, alternatively, a single element, positive or negative power optical lens, that is subject to a controlled amount of symmetric, peripheral stress. The stress may be provided by appropriate mechanical, thermal, hydraulic, electromagnetic/piezo, annealing/molding, or other known techniques and may be trigonal or four-fold. Axial foci can be created by applying the controlled, symmetric, peripheral stress. The separation distance between the foci can be controlled by controlling the magnitude of the applied symmetric, peripheral stress.
Claims7
A method for producing a plurality of axial illumination regions along the optical axis of an optical system, comprising:
- providing a transparent optical component disposed along an optical axis of the component;
- applying a controlled, uniform, symmetric peripheral stress to the come to increase birefringence of the component;
- transmitting a circularly polarized light through the stressed component;
- and
- simultaneously obtaining at least two foci of the transmitted light along the optical axis by the application of the controlled, symmetric peripheral stress.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.