Polarization properties and polarization compensation of Dove prism

In order to avoid the polarization changes of the irradiation laser pulse, caused by the rotation of Dove prism in the co-aperture optical system of airborne electro-optical pod, the polarization properties of the Dove prism and the compensation of the polarization changes of laser pulse are theoretically analyzed by Jones matrix, and they were also experimentally verified.In the compensation of polarization, a quarter-wave plate and a half wave plate are used.The results show that, when the linearly polarized laser pulse passes through the Dove prism that rotated an angle, the polarization state of the laser pulse becomes elliptically polarized.Obviously, the polarization state has changed.Moreover, when the laser pulse passes through a quarter-wave plate and a half wave plate that rotated a certain angle firstly, the output laser pulse polarization states at Dove prism system remain unchanged, and there is a nonlinear relationship between the two wave plates' rotation angles and Dove prism's rotation angle.Therefore, this polarization compensation method can effectively avoid the laser pulse polarization change caused by Dove prism rotation in co-aperture optical system of airborne electro-optical pod.Consequently, the utilization of the laser pulse energy is improved and the difficulty of suppressing the backscattering of laser pulse is decreased.