Wave plate question

[FourDee]

Hi guys,

I have a question about half wave plates. Do these just rotate polarisation or the entire beam? I believe it's just the polarisation, but just making sure ...

[edison]

Good question i have no idea Maybe MCCarrot knows. He,s selling waveplates on his website so probably he knows the difference.

[Laserman532]

WOW...deja vu

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...ght=wave+plate

[andythemechanic]

In short: they only rotate polarisation.

[edison]

Thanks andy for making this clear

[mixedgas]

Thanks andy for making this clear

Dove prisms can rotate the beam, but do weird things to the polarization. You can place a dove in front of a scanner pair and it will rotate the whole image.

[Laserman532]

Dove prisms can rotate the beam, but do weird things to the polarization. You can place a dove in front of a scanner pair and it will rotate the whole image.

with some scanners doing 40 degrees that is one big dove prism...but technically yes