Polarization transforming properties of Dove prisms Ivan Moreno 1 , Gonzalo Paez, Marija Strojnik * Centro de Investigaciones en Optica, Apdo. Postal 1-948, 37000 Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico Received 19 November 2002; received in revised form 4 April 2003; accepted 8 April 2003 Abstract We analyze the polarization changes introduced by a rotated Dove prism on the linearly polarized light, using the Jones calculus and the exact ray trace analysis. The state of polarization changes from the linear to a mildly elliptical one when a plane wave front passes through a rotated Dove prism: its semi-major axis is nearly parallel to the input plane of polarization, for any angle of prism rotation. The interferogram contrast remains high for all shearing angles in spite of polarization changes when the Dove prism is incorporated into a rotational shearing interferometer. These results are confirmed experimentally. Ó 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 42.25.Bs; 42.79.Bh; 42.25.Bs; 07.60.Ly Keywords: Dove prism; Polarization change; Contrast; Wave-front rotation; Rotational shearing interferometer 1. Introduction A rotational shearing interferometer (RSI) has been proposed to detect extrasolar planet signal [1,2], while additionally removing star light by nulling and by coronagraphic methods [3–5]. Furthermore, a RSI can be used to test off-axis segments of large segmented or diluted mirrors, used as the primaries, often employed in the faint signal detection and other applications [6,7]. A Mach–Zehnder interferometer with Dove prisms inserted into each arm is transformed into a RSI. Dove prisms have found wide use in the traditional optical systems as the image erectors. However, their standard design results in the small aperture that may very well become the stop of the optical system, with its associated consequences of image distortion and poor illumination. Another issue to be considered is the polarization change produced by the rotation of the beam in one arm of the interferometer with respect to that in the other. The polarization problem may lead to the reduced contrast of the fringe patterns in the Optics Communications 220 (2003) 257–268 www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom * Corresponding author. Tel.: +52-477-773-1023; fax: +52-477-717-5000. E-mail addresses: morenoi@cio.mx (I. Moreno), mstrojnik@aol.com (M. Strojnik). 1 Also corresponding author. 0030-4018/03/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0030-4018(03)01423-8