Re Diffractive polarisers

[P3D Peter Homer <P.J.Homer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>I was interested in the posts by Greg Erker and Peter Abrahams on this
>subject.Sorry for the late reply but I have had an address change and could
>not get my mail accepted at first. I have read about something of this sort
>before and may be able to
>locate the source  One of the interesting things
>about this type of polariser is that it actualy seems to work according to
>the "Rope and Picket fence analogy" which is used to explain the
>polarisation by polaroid etc but which do not actualy work that way.
>  Where does the figure for 80% transmission come from? it seems to be Greg
>Erkers own figure not from the original article. I think it may be a little
>optimistic as the transmitting and absorbing or reflecting ( the original
>article says reflecting) parts of the grating would be equal in size 50%
>transmsion would seem to be the best possible . Assuming the transmision of
>the transmiting areas was 100% . But if the light is reflected and is also
>polarised and in the same plane as the transmited not at right angles to it
>perhaps they could be recombined with further reflectors to give a
>transmission aproaching 100% .
>                                                   P.J.Homer



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