Optical adder for optical attenuation

摘要

There is provided an optical adder for accurately and additively specifying variable optical attenuation, which comprises a quarter wave plate disposed on an optical axis for changing an incident linearly polarized light beam emanating from a light source to a circularly polarized light beam; and one or more neutral density filter plates all disposed on the optical axis next to said quarter wave plate for attenuating the incident circularly polarized light beam respectively additively by a predetermined amount.