- #1
SchroedingersLion
- 215
- 57
Greetings,
another question to the Pockels Effect, maybe someone can answer this.
Pockels Cells are called "voltage controlled waveplates", since the voltage changes the birefringence of the material, leading to the same birefringence induced change of total polarisation plane than in wave plates.
However, it is known that waveplates, unlike Faraday Rotators, are reciprocal, meaning if you send a beam of light through a waveplate, let it reflect somewhere and let it pass through the plate once more, the total effect is zero.
However, in a Pockels Cell, this seems not to be the case, as one lecture slide to Q-switching of lasers via Pockels cells imply:
The lefthand side picture does imply that the effect is not reversed. So the comparison of Pockels cells with waveplates is not 100% accurate?
SL
another question to the Pockels Effect, maybe someone can answer this.
Pockels Cells are called "voltage controlled waveplates", since the voltage changes the birefringence of the material, leading to the same birefringence induced change of total polarisation plane than in wave plates.
However, it is known that waveplates, unlike Faraday Rotators, are reciprocal, meaning if you send a beam of light through a waveplate, let it reflect somewhere and let it pass through the plate once more, the total effect is zero.
However, in a Pockels Cell, this seems not to be the case, as one lecture slide to Q-switching of lasers via Pockels cells imply:
The lefthand side picture does imply that the effect is not reversed. So the comparison of Pockels cells with waveplates is not 100% accurate?
SL