Practical designs for thin film wave plates

Thin film wave plates are constructed by the oblique deposition of dielectric material onto glass substrates. Two basic designs incorporating biaxial columnar thin films have been proposed. The single-column-angle plate provides different sensitivities of retardance to angular tilting, but suffers from thickness (and hence retardance) wedging. The double-column-angle plate is relatively insensitive to tilt and substantially free of wedging. However, both basic designs are susceptible to the ingress of atmospheric moisture, which has the effect of reducing the retardance. In this paper we describe modifications to the basic designs that seal the wave plates against the uptake of atmospheric moisture. The modifications eliminate wedging in the single-column-angle plate, but the characteristic angular sensitivities of the basic designs are retained. (C) 1998 Society of Photo Optical Instrumentation.