Recent content by lvb884

Ok, so I finally got to the bottom of the issue I was having, and it has more to do with basic reflection properties than parabolic mirrors. Anytime you reflect a beam at a 3D angle, the polarization will shift. I searched all over for answers to this, and a friend finally pointed me in the...

Thanks for the clarification. But how do you know the beam is still Gaussian after it reflects from the parabolic mirror?

Can you explain what you're showing here? My question was about parabolic mirrors, not symmetrical lenses.

Thanks!

Thanks! So basically this means that if the alignment isn't perfect, there's a good chance that the polarization becomes distorted? Do you know where I can look to find more info about this curved polarization resulting from parabolic mirrors?

Yes, in this case, the incident beam and the parabolic mirror are at the same height, and the flat surface is below (or above, whichever you prefer). I do not understand how the beam would be considered collimated at the focal point. To me, this suggests that a setup like this can be used for...

Thanks! I forgot to mention that I'm most interested in S vs. P polarization. So I'll adjust my scenario a bit... Let's say I have a collimated and linearly polarized laser beam, and it reflects off of a parabolic mirror onto a flat absorbing surface. The plane of the absorbing surface is...

Let's say I have a linearly polarized laser beam, and I focus it to a small spot using a parabolic mirror. Does the light retain its polarization at the focal point? Why or why not? I understand that flat mirrors and concave/convex mirrors preserve linear polarization, and I would like to make...