Polarisation control through an optical feedback technique and its application in precise measurements

Abstract

We present an anisotropic optical feedback technique for controlling light polarisation. The technique is based on the principle that the effective gain of a light mode is modulated by the magnitude of the anisotropic feedback. A new physical model that integrates Lamb's semi-classical theory and a model of the equivalent cavity of a Fabry-Perot interferometer is developed to reveal the physical nature of this technique. We use this technique to measure the phase retardation, optical axis, angle, thickness and refractive index with a high precision of λ/1380, 0.01, 0.002, 59 nm and 0.0006, respectively.