Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal Corp.

Kunimitsu Yajima

Hiromi Iwamoto

Shinji Kameda

Provided is an optical component including: a pair of substrate bodies each having a refractive index of not lower than 2 with respect to infrared laser light, and having an incident surface or an emitting surface and an inclined surface inclined with respect to this surface at &#x3b8;i; and an antireflective film which prevents reflection of normal incident infrared laser light, wherein &#x3b8;i is not smaller than a complementary angle &#x3b8;tB of a Brewster's angle &#x3b8;B of infrared laser light incident on a plate member and smaller than a critical angle &#x3b8;c, the inclined surfaces are opposed to each other via a gap, and the incident surface and the emitting surface are arranged in parallel to each other.

Optical component for the polarization of infrared laser light

Provided is a polarization state converting element including a plurality of waveplates, and a rotation mechanism that rotates the respective waveplates independently of one another around an optical axis. The waveplates are each configured by a substrate made of a material having no optical rotatory property but having birefringence, or are each made of a material having neither optical rotatory property nor birefringence, but having transparency, a function of phase delay depending on polarization being applied on a surface of each waveplate.

Polarization state converting element

An optical component including: a first substrate body which is made of a platy member allowing infrared laser beam to be transmitted therethrough and having a refractive index of 2 to 4 with respect to the infrared laser beam, and which has an input surface where the infrared laser beam is incident, and an inclined surface inclined to the input surface at an angle of inclination, calculated in accordance with Formula (I):(&#x3bb;)&#xd7;sin &#x3b8;(&#x3bb;)=&#xd7;sin()&#x2003;&#x2003;(I)and formed with a transmitting phase retarding film that shifts a phase of the infrared laser beam; and a second substrate body which is made of the platy member and which has an output surface from which the infrared laser beam is emitted, and an inclined surface inclined at the angle of inclination to the output surface and formed with the transmitting phase retarding film. The inclined surfaces of both substrate bodies are arranged as opposed to each other so as to have a space therebetween.

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Itami, Japan

Kunimitsu Yajima