Polarization Metrology and Component Specification

Baur details techniques and equipment for performance characterization of optical components for polarization control. He discusses metrology for polarizers, wave plates, and precision liquid crystal devices. The presentation includes a survey of available capabilities and performance trade-offs to consider for a variety of these components, as an aid to users in selecting the best component for their application.

About the presenter
Tom Baur is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Meadowlark Optics, Inc. In 1979 Tom worked as a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, leading a project to measure the magnetic fields in the sun’s spots and needed a component that did not exist. Out of necessity, he built the product, a pockels cell, in a spare bedroom of his home. Word spread, and the after-hours venture quickly became a company by supplying pockels cells to other astronomers. Baur began to design and make other products. When operations outgrew the spare room, he remodeled out buildings on his property with offices and workrooms. Several years later those buildings were full, and he built a state-of the art manufacturing facility. In 2005 he was voted the Bravo Entrepreneur of the year for Northern Colorado. He won the SPIE G.G. Stokes award in 2017 for exceptional contributions to the field of optical polarization.