Circular Polarizer

A polarizing component that uses a linear polarizer in combination with a retarder (waveplate). The retarder is used to introduce a wave shift between the orthogonal components of the polarized light. In this way, two equal components of light oscillating perpendicular to each other with a relative phase difference add as vectors to yield a rotating linear polarization state. If the amplitude components of the orthogonal states are not equal, the vector addition of the two components will produce an elliptical polarization. For this reason, the linearly polarized light is input into the retarder at 45° to the fast axis to ensure that both components are of equal amplitude.