Broadband division-of-amplitude polarimeter based on uncoated prisms

Abstract

A broadband division-of-amplitude polarimeter (DOAP) is presented. It can provide the real-time measurement of any state of polarization of light, described by its Stokes vector, in large spectral windows. The light is split first into two beams by a prism and then into four beams by means of any polarizer device that will separate the two linear orthogonal states of polarization. Finally, the Stokes vector is directly deduced from the four measured intensities. To avoid interference effects, the splitting of light into four beams is induced only by refractive-index contrast effects between semi-infinite media that are weakly dependent on the wavelength. An experimental setup working from 0.4 to 2 mum is described. It provides similar sensitivities for all the states of polarization, and its characteristics are constant, on a scale of a few percent, within the spectral window. Calibrations performed at 458 and 633 nm display good agreement between theoretical and experimental values. The accuracy of the prism DOAP, evaluated by measurement of the Stokes vector produced by a rotating Glan polarizer, is better than 1%. An infrared extension of this polarimeter is also presented.

Optimal beam splitters for the division-of-amplitude photopolarimeter

“…Several DOAP instruments have been constructed and applied to reflection and scattering Mueller-matrix ellipsometry. [6][7][8][9][10] Because the DOAP generates four linearly independent projections of the unknown Stokes vector of incident light simultaneously (via four independent parallel channels), it is capable of complete and fast (time-resolved) measurement of light polarization or scattering matrices under dynamic conditions.…”

“…(The FDP uses partially reflective photodetectors at oblique incidence and a nonplanar light path to measure the Stokes vector S.) Hence it is not surprising that the quarterwave differential phase shift [Eq. (7) 18 Earlier polarimeter optimization studies 6,9,19,20 employed other criteria for optimality; e.g., the minimization of variously defined condition numbers of the instrument matrix. 21 Our analytical approach, which is based on the maximum absolute value of the normalized determinant of the polarimeter instrument matrix, is simple, transparent, and less computationally intensive than those previous techniques.…”

An overview of polarimetric sensing techniques and technology with applications to different research fields

“…Compound beam-splitter assemblies can be designed that yield four beams to record the full linear polarization, or even full-Stokes data. 33 Another implementation consists of boresighted optical systems, each with their own polarization analyzer and detector ("division of aperture"). The polarimetric system can also be implemented at the detector level, using microgrid polarizer arrays (see subsection 5.2) such that a combination of intensity measurements by clusters of pixels yields instantaneous polarization data ("division of focal plane").…”

Information and resolution in electromagnetic optical systems

“…F denotes the Frobenius norm. Compain and Drevillon [37] proposed an alternative PSA construction, as shown in Fig. 2(b), in which the prism geometry and the angle of incidence of light onto the first surface are optimized to minimize the condition number of the instrument matrix to a value of 4.48.…”