Je. Heebner et al., Conversion of unpolarized light to polarized light with greater than 50% efficiency by photorefractive two-beam coupling, OPTICS LETT, 25(4), 2000, pp. 257-259
All known polarizers operate through a separation of orthogonal electric fi
eld components, one of which is subsequently discarded. As a result, 50% of
the unpolarized incident light is wasted in the process of conversion to p
olarized light. We demonstrate a new method by which we use the optical pow
er in the ordinarily discarded component as the pump to amplify the retaine
d component through photorefractive two-beam coupling to achieve greater th
an 50% throughput. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 190.5530
, 260.5430, 190.4360, 160.5320, 160.4330, 190.0190.