Measuring the Mueller matrix of an arbitrary optical element with a universal SU(2) polarization gadget

Abstract

We propose a new method for determining the Mueller matrix of an arbitrary optical element and verify it with three known optical elements. This method makes use of two universal SU(2) polarization gadgets to obtain the projection matrix directly from the experiment. It allows us to determine the Mueller matrix without precalibration of the setup, since the generated polarization states are fully determined by the azimuths of the wave plates. We calculate errors in determining the Mueller matrix and compare with other techniques.

Polarimetry with azimuthally polarized light

“…These differences are typically around 0.02 or less for most of the Mueller matrix elements for all studied samples. These values are comparable to the maximum error reported in the Mueller matrix elements measurements by using the dual-rotating retarder method (±0.034 [28]), by using variable retarders and rotators together with the analysis of 16 images (±0.035 [29]) or by using a universal SU(2) polarization gadget (±0.02 [30]). Bueno reported lower error limits in the determination of the Mueller matrix elements when using a polarimetric method based on liquid crystal variable retarders(±0.014 [31]).…”

Three-particle hyper-entanglement: teleportation and quantum key distribution

“…The coincidence measurements with the combinations of P(D1, D6 + D9), P(D1, D5 + D8), P(D2, D4 + D7), P(D2, D6+D9), P(D2, D5+D8), P(D2, D4+D7), P(D3, D6+ D9), P(D3, D5 + D8) and P(D3, D4 + D7) are required for the key distribution and to check the security of the key using Eq. (18) and (19).…”

“…All the OAM operations or measurements must be performed in even/odd basis using OAM sorter [17]. This maps the general OAM state to even/odd basis which is mathematically represented by operator g. Let the photon 1 pass through a Simon-Mukunda polarization gadget which can convert its polarization to any arbitrary state [18,19] and the photon 2 pass through a half wave plate at π 8 . Thus polarization state of the photon 1 is encoded as the unknown state a|H 1 +b|V 1 and the state of the photon 2 is encoded as…”

Spirally polarized beams for polarimetry measurements of deterministic and homogeneous samples

“…Some methods, based on polarization modulation, use rotating anisotropic optical elements to produce a relatively large set of incident polarization states in sequence and recover the sample characteristics by means of signal analysis [4,6,10]. Recently, two Simon-Mukunda gadgets [11,12] have been experimentally used to sequentially generate four different polarization states and to analyze the exiting light [13]. In divisionof-amplitude polarimetry, to determine the state of polarization of the light exiting the sample, the output beam is split into four, and the replicas are simultaneously sent onto four analyzers [4,6,14,15].…”

“…Several techniques have been proposed to improve the polarization state generator, the analyzer, or both [11,13,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Some of them are faster or easier to apply and others do not require many changes in the experimental arrangement, so that potential problems, such as misalignments, are reduced.…”