Solc Filter Engineering

This paper describes one phase of an ongoing development program in tunable optical filter techniques. Like previous efforts in this program, the goal of this phase is to find practical implementations of sophisticated concepts in birefringent filters. In particular, in this phase we are concerned with a practical implementation of Solc filters. The implementation which is described below incorporates theoretical developments reported previously in a mechanical design suited for laboratory development. In Section 1, a brief introduction to Solc lossless filters is presented. A particular type of lossless filter, the generalized split element, is introduced in Section 2. Its advantages and limitations are noted. The application of waveplates and their engineering implication is described in Section 3. Finally, in Section 4, the actual mechanical and optical components are shown. Attention is given to the relationship between the spectral objectives and the engineering implementation.