Reducing Birefringence Uncertainty in the Design of ATST Polarization Components

摘要

Scientific requirements for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope push the limits of polarimetric calibration and modulation components. The super achromatic retarder and poly chromatic modulator designs comprise of a stack of wave plates with fast axes at different orientations. In order to design these elements over a broad wavelength range it is imperative to know the fundamental properties of the materials. Crystalline quartz, sapphire, and MgF_2 have been selected as candidate materials due to their hardness, transmission, and unique birefringence properties. Previously published dispersion models for these crystals do not agree in areas of the design wavelength range. We performed a series of measurements to determine the birefringence from 0.38 μm to 5.0 μm in order to improve our design capabilities.