Liquid Crystal Variable Retarders

• Company: Meadowlark Optics Inc.
• Type: Other
• Diameter / Dimension: 5mm - 76.2mm
• Applications: Astronomy, Biomedical/Medical, Communications, Industrial, Military, Scientific Research, Other
• Wavelength Range: 450 - 1800 nm (specify)
• Retardance Range: 0 to λ/2 (Custom ranges available)
• Wavefront Distortion: ≤ λ/4 (at 632.8 nm)
• Surface Quality: 40 - 20 scratch‐dig
• Beam Deviation: ≤ 2 arc min
• Temperature Range: 0°C to 50°C

These products all use nematic liquid crystal materials to electrically control polarization. Meadowlark Optics standard liquid crystal products provide tunable retardation by changing the effective birefringence of the material with applied voltage, thus altering the input polarized light to any chosen elliptical, linear or circular polarization.

Our precision Liquid Crystal Variable Retarders require unique fabrication and assembly steps. We construct these retarders using optically flat fused silica windows coated with our transparent conductive Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). Our ITO coating is specially designed for maximum transmission from 450 – 1800 nm.