Wave-plate retarders based on overhead transparencies

We describe procedures for constructing inexpensive wave plates of desired retardation out of ordinary commercially available transparencies. Various relevant properties of the transparencies are investigated: the dependence of retardation on rotation of the film, tilt, wavelength, position, and temperature. A transparency is typically a multiple-order wave plate with the difference of in-plane refractive indices of similar to 0.07 and a temperature dependence of retardation similar to 0.02 rad/K. Constructing wave plates out of combinations of transparency sheets is also explored. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.