Fig. 1. Experimental setup. The source S, iris I, lens L1, lens L2, and polarizer P1 form a collimated beam of white polarized light. Polarizer P2 and lens L3 focus the beam of output light onto the entrance F of an optical fiber connected to a spectrometer. The two parts of the composite polarization rotator, which is constructed of a stack of multiple-order half-wave plates, are denoted as CPR1 and CPR2.

Fig. 2. Measured transmittance for two different composite broadband rotators. The blue dashed line represents a rotator with six half-wave plates, while the red solid line represents a rotator with 10 half-wave plates. The black dash-dotted line represents a rotator comprising two half-wave plates for easy reference.

Fig. 3. Measured transmittance for two different composite narrowband rotators. The blue dashed line represents a rotator with six half-wave plates, while the red solid line represents a rotator with 10 half-wave plates. The black dash-dotted line represents a rotator comprising two half-wave plates for easy reference.