Design of MacNeille Polarizing Beam Splitter

MacNeille polarizing beam splitters(PBSs) has become important optical components in many optical systems. The principle of this type polarizing beam splitters was discussed in detail. It was found that the number of layers of a thin-film assembly, match of refractive index, and shift of reference wavelength are important parameters in designing MacNeille polarizing beam splitters. With the help of numerical simulation, the effect of these parameters on the properties of MacNeille polarizing beam splitters was estimated detailedly. The results show that the transmittance rises gradually for p-polarized light whereas decreases for s-polarized light with the modest increase of the number of layers, and consequently the bandwidth and extinction ratio improves. When the number of layers is fixed, the centre wavelength is shifted to a shorter wavelength as the reference wavelength decreases.