Nicholas Clyde with John Ruhl
Polarization Properties of Half-wave Plates
Millimeter wave optical components are useful for current Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) experiments in the field of astrophysics. Therefore, it is useful to characterize these components. The purpose of this study is to test specifically the polarization properties of Millimeter wave optical components by using a millimeter wave system. This millimeter wave system will be constructed out of a Gunn oscillator opposite a diode detector with millimeter wave optical components in the middle. In order to make sure that only photons of a certain polarization reach the millimeter wave optical components, between both the Gunn oscillator and the components as well as between the diode detector and the components with rest a polarization grid. These polarization grids will be designed, built, and tested for the purpose of this study. The grids will be used to control the polarization state of both the incident wave on the device under test, and the transmitted wave that makes its way to the detector.