Rochon Retarders

Custom Rochon retarders makes use of two birefringent prisms, such as calcite, quartz, MgF₂, YVO₄, and a-BBO, arranged such that the optic axis of the first prism is vertical and the second prism has its optic axis at 90° to the first prism and going into the paper. The prisms are cemented together along their longest faces, thus forming a, for example, cube or rectangular block of calcite. The Rochon configuration for the polariser has a very high extinction ratio, 10,000:1, with the ordinary, p-, rays passing through the prism undeviated. The Rochon retarder is a zero retarder given the optic axes are orthogonal and thus the retardation is given by the difference in the optical paths through the two birefringent prisms.

Knight Optical supply high quality rochon retarders to your custom specification. Every component is individually tested by our highly skilled technicians in our state of art metrology lab to ensure all components meet our high quality standards.

Contact our multilingual technical sales team and discover how Knight Optical’s high quality custom rochon retarders and service can improve your instrumentation and supply chain experience.