We have measured the optical properties of wire-grid polarizers (WGPs). The implications of these results to the application of WGPs in projectors that use reflective light valves are discussed. In particular, the brightness and the contrast ratio of the projection system are investigated as functions of the angle of incidence of the light beam onto the WGP. It was found that the optimal incident angle is dependent on the physical design of the wire grids. In the sample that we describe, the optimal incident angle was 35° instead of 45°. At the optimal incident angle, both the transmission and the reflection extinction ratios can be quite good. However, WGPs suffer from the drawback of free-carrier absorption by the metal grid.

© 2003 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

Related Journal Articles

• High-Efficiency Blazed Diffractive Optical Elements for the Violet Wavelength Fabricated by Electron-Beam Lithography (AO)
• Effect of Vaporization and Melt Ejection on Laser Machining of Silica Glass Micro-Optical Components (AO)
• Real-time gray-scale photolithography for fabrication of continuous microstructure (OL)
• Self-organized formation of a Blazed-grating-like structure on Si(100) induced by focused ion-beam (OE)
• Large-area and thin light guide plates fabricated using UV-based imprinting (OE)

Related Conference Papers

• Recent Progress in Silicon Double Inversion of Three-Dimensional Polymer Templates
• Two-Dimensional Porous Silicon Photonic Crystal Light Emitters
• Second Harmonic Generation in Blue Region by 1st-order QPM in Quartz
• Enhancement of Laser Nano-Patterning of Semiconductors: Direct Ablation of PMMA Coated Silicon
• Deposition of Tungsten Induced by Femtosecond Lasers