That's just what I was trying to find out. Special polarizers for microscopes cost and awful lot and I want to try a circular polarizer to see if it will approximate the behaviour of a very expensive elliptical polarizer. Lamda plates also cost at least one arm and leg and I'm thinking about what I can do in that case as well. Even a simple 1/4 wave plate, once available for the Zeiss range of instruments -- it went into the filter holder under the condenser -- was expensive.
Don _______________ Dr E D F Williams http://personal.inet.fi/cool/don.williams Author's Web Site and Photo Gallery Updated: July 31, 2003 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Szasz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 10:11 AM Subject: Re: A test -- 'crossed nicols' > From my knowledge of how a circular polarizer works you will get a 3db > loss for every re linerazation (every polarization after the 1/4 wave > plate). Two circular polarizers (any positions)therfore would cut the > amount of light recieved in half (assuming perfect rejection of the > perpendicular polarization). If you place a linear polarizer in front of a > circular polarizer it will act just like two linear polarizers, but the > light after the 1/4 wave plate in the circular polarizer will be > circularly polarized (either right or left handed depending on the way > the polarizer was constructed)) > > On Wed, 20 Aug 2003, Dr E D F Williams wrote: > > > Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 08:34:05 +0300 > > From: Dr E D F Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: A test -- 'crossed nicols' > > Resent-Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 01:34:17 -0400 > > Resent-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > If anyone has two circular polarizers I'd be grateful if you would perform a > > test. Put one over the other and rotate to see if the field becomes > > completely dark when they are crossed. And ... if you also have an ordin ary > > polarizer try the same experiment using one normal and one circular > > polarizer. > > > > Don > > _______________ > > Dr E D F Williams > > http://personal.inet.fi/cool/don.williams > > Author's Web Site and Photo Gallery > > Updated: July 31, 2003 > > > > > > > > >
