Related Products:            Calcite Glan-Laser Polarizer                

                                   Calcite Glan-Taylor Polarizer                  

                                   Calcite Brewster Angle Polarizer          

                                   Calcite Glan-Thompson Polarizer          

                                   Calcite Glan-Thompson PBS Cube            

                                   Calcite Wollaston Polarizer                    

Calcite, Calcium Carbonate (CaO3), is a widely preferred choice of material, owing to its very high birefringence, wide spectral transmission and the availability of reasonably sized rhombs. It has the advantage of being non-hygroscopic, so that protection from the atmosphere is not necessary. Although a fairly soft crystal and easily scratched, Calcite is an ideal material for use as visible wavelengths and near IR polarizers such as Glan Taylor, Glan Thompson and Glan Laser polarizers.

Bluebean Optical carefully selects the raw Calcites crystals by inspecting them with a CW green laser beam. We have perfected a number of proprietary processes for cutting, grinding and polishing good quality optical surfaces for Calcite prisms. These skills are evident in the high quality of our finished components, and enable our polarizers to be used with very high peak power lasers.

Calcite Crystals Properties:

Refractive Indices, Birefringence (Δn = n_e - n_o , and Walk-off Angle (ρ) at 45° )

    @0.63 μm:  n_o=1.6557  n_e=1.4852  Δn=-0.1705  ρ = 6.20°

    @1.30 μm:  n_o=1.6629  n_e=1.4885  Δn=-0.1744  ρ = 6.32° 

Sellmeier Equation (λ in μm)

   n_o²=2.69705 + 0.0192064/(λ²-0.01820) - 0.0151624λ²

   n_e²=2.18438 + 0.0087309/(λ²-0.01018) - 0.0024411λ²

Transparency Curve of Calcite: