Waveplates
From crystal growth, crystal orientation and cutting, to waveplate fabrication and coating, no other waveplate supplier has as much control over the fabrication stages as G&H.
Our waveplates been used in the cutting edge of research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s NIF project to the most demanding of production environments in semiconductor metrology equipment.
For all wavelength ranges, we orient, cut, and polish the optical crystals for waveplate production. Tight internal controls enable better retardation tolerances within and between production runs.
Polishing, coating, assembly, and metrology complete the manufacturing process.
Compound zero-order (also known as net-zero order) and achromatic waveplates are often optically contacted to reduce reflection losses at the surfaces. Air-spacing is recommended for high energy applications. Speciality waveplate designs such as off-axis or true-zero order waveplates are produced to custom specifications.
Waveplates from the UV to the NIR
From crystal orientation to assembled product, we produce cutting-edge waveplates for a varied range of applications and customers.
- Crystal Quartz – standard material for UV-NIR waveplate applications
- LiNbO3 – infrequently used in 1.5 ?m applications and optical frequency shifters
- MgF2 – typically used in combination with Crystal Quartz for achromatic waveplates
- Mica – for ophthalmology applications
- Sapphire – for defense applications in extreme environmental conditions
- YVO4 – waveplates for the 400 nm to 5 ?m ranges
Waveplates for the IR, higher energies, or larger formats
As the world's only entirely vertically integrated CdS, CdSe, and KDP waveplate producer, we deliver accurate performance for demanding applications. Our control over crystal growth benefits customers who need larger sizes, high laser damage threshold performance, or more accurate retardation tolerances.
Applications
Aerospace, astronomy, biomedical, laser power control and attenuation, military, optical isolation, polarimetry, remote sensing, semiconductor metrology, spectroscopy, surveillance.
| Visible & NIRSpecifications | UV, VIS, NIR Multiple Order, Net-Zero, Dual | UV, VIS, NIR Achromatic | UV, VIS, NIR High Energy |
| Substrate material | Crystal Quartz | Crystal Quartz & MgF2 | KDP or KD*P |
| Sizes | 5 mm to150 mm | 5 mm to 50 mm | 5 mm to 430 mm |
| High surface quality | 10-5 | 40-20 typical | 10-5 < 20 mm 20-10 < 430 mm |
| Retardation tolerance | λ/500 at 23°Cat633 nm | | ?/72at 23°C |
| Operating conditions | 10 J/cm2, 20 ns pulse, 20 Hz | | 10 J/cm2,10 ns pulseat 1064 nm |
| Transmission | 99.9% | 99% | 99% |
| Transmitted wavefront | λ/10 at 633 nm | λ/10 at 633 nm | ?/6at 633 nm |
| Parallelism | |
| InfraredSpecifications* | IR multiple ordersingle wavelength (3µm- 12µm)?? | IR Net zero orderNarrow range (3µm- 12µm) | Achromatic 3-5µm, 5-8 µm, or 8-12 µm |
| Substrate material | CdS or CdSe | CdS/CdS or CdSe/CdSe | CdS/CdSe |
| Sizes | 4mm to 29mm | 4mm to 29mm | 4mm to 29mm |
| Retardation?tolerance | ± 5° at design wavelength | ± 5° at design wavelength | ± 10° |
| Transmission | >97% at design wavelength | >90% at center wavelength | >90% at center wavelength |
*custom wavelength ranges available
G&H has received IS09001 certification across all of its manufacturing facilities. AS9100C certification has been achieved at select facilities.
