EXPERIMENTAL-VERIFICATION OF A FORM-BIREFRINGENT POLARIZATION SPLITTER

Experimental verification is made of a new polarization splitter which utilizes artificial anisotropic dielectrics. The splitter is composed of layers of periodically laminated SiO2/TiO2 thin films. The SiO2 and TiO2 films are alternately deposited by rf sputtering and reactive dc sputtering, respectively. The thickness of each layer is 50 nm, while the total number of the layers amounts to 2000. The measured polarization split angles are 5.7-degrees (lambda = 0.63-mu-m) and 5.1-degrees (lambda = 1.3-mu-m), being roughly the same as those predicted.