Quartz Waveplate --ture zero order/ zero order/ mulitple order

Zero Order Waveplate

The zero order waveplate is designed to give a retardance of zero full waves, plus the desired fraction. Zero order waveplate shows better performance than low/multiple order waveplates. It has broad bandwidth and a lower sensitivity to temperature and wavelength changes. It should be considered for more critical applications。


It is constructed of two low order waveplates with their axes crossed. Thus,the effect of the first plate is canceled by the second,except for the residual difference between them. There are normally three different structures as follows,


Optical Contact

Cemented by Epoxy

Air spaced



Low Order Waveplate

Low(multiple) order waveplate is designed to give a retardance of several full waves, plus the desired fraction. This result in a single, physically robust component with desired performance. However, even small changed in wavelength or temperature will result in significant changes in the desired fractional retardance. They are less expensive and find use in many applicatios where the increased sensitivities are not an important.


Photonchina’s waveplates fabrication starts from quartz materials cutting with their axes oriented within a few arcminutes before being polished to a laser-quality finish, arcsecond parallelism, and <λ/10 wavefront. Their thickness tolerance is a only small fraction of a micron. To verify retardation tolerances, specially-trained optical technicians use purpose-built test gear. After anti-reflective coating, zero order and achromatic waveplates are matched in pairs and accurately aligned to each other within their cell mounts.


Wavepalte Types:

Photonchina’s waveplates include octadic waveplate (1/8 waveplate),quarter waveplates(1/4 waveplate), half wave plates(1/2 waveplate) and full waveplate

Both circular aperture and quadratic aperture are available.