Abstract:
Birefringence is an inherent optical property of anisotropic materials that enables
manipulation of polarization state of light beams for various photonic and
optoelectronic applications. In this work, we demonstrate the ability of the
cellophane sheet to act as a phase retarder. Results show that the cellophane
introduces a phase shift of 0.98π radians on the incident beam. By rotating the
cellophane sheet on the object beam, the fringe separation is measured for different
angles and the values used to calculate the ordinary and extraordinary refractive
indices as 1.4721 ± 0.0002 and 1.4680 ± 0.0002 respectively. Because of its sufficient
birefringence and small thickness of 24 µm, cellophane can be used to fabricate
special polarization pupil masks by cutting and aligning different cellophane
structures appropriately.
