Abstract
Part I of this series described a procedure for synthesizing birefringent networks having arbitrarily prescribed amplitude transmittance. The network resulting from that procedure consists of a series of identical cascaded birefringent crystals between an input and output polarizer. We refer to such a network as a “lossless birefringent network” since it contains no internal polarizers. The variables determined by the synthesis procedure of Part I are the angles to which the crystals and the output polarizer are rotated. This paper proves several general theorems concerned with lossless birefringent networks. These theorems deal with (1) uniqueness; (2) the effect upon the transmittance of changing the sign of the angles of the crystals and output polarizer; (3) the effect upon the transmittance of turning the network end for end; and (4) the symmetry relations which the crystal and polarizer angles must satisfy when certain restrictions are imposed upon the desired amplitude transmittance.
© 1966 Optical Society of America
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