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Thermodynamics

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Half Wave Plate

This plate is also made from a doubly refracting uniaxial crystal of quartz or calcite with its refracting faces cut parallel to the optic axis. The thickness of the plate is such that the ordinary and the extraordinary rays have a path difference = λ/2 after passing through the crystal.

For negative crystals, path difference =

For positive crystals, path difference =

To produce a path difference of λ/2 in calcite,

and in the case of quartz,

when plane-polarized light is incident on a half-wave plate such that it makes an angle of 45˚ with the optic axis, a path difference of λ/2 is introduced between the extraordinary and the ordinary rays. The emergent light is plane-polarized and the direction of polarization of the linear incident light is rotated through 90˚ as shown in fig. Then, a half wave plate rotates the azimuth of a beam of plane-polarized light by 90˚, provided the incident light makes an angle of 45˚ with the optic axis of the half wave plate.