Determination of the Circular Polarized Fraction of Light using a Voltage Driven Nematic Liquid Crystal Wave-Plate

ABSTRACT We present a two measurement method to extract the circularly polarized fraction of light at a particular wavelength. It involves a voltage driven nematic liquid crystal wave-plate and a polarizing filter oriented with their axes 45° to each other. The circular polarized component is calculated from intensities transmitted when the liquid crystal wave-plate acts as a 1/4 wave-plate at one voltage and 3/4-wave plate at another.