Peinado Alba, Lizana Angel, Campos Juan
Department of Physics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
Appl Opt. 2013 Aug 10;52(23):5748-57. doi: 10.1364/AO.52.005748.
We present the design of Stokes and Mueller polarimeters based on ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) panels. The instrument is complete and takes time-sequential measurements. A FLC device is modeled as a uniaxial birefringent waveplate with two stable optical axis orientations switchable by a squared electrical signal. The optical parameters of the LC device (retardance and the two stable orientations of the fast axis) are calibrated. Then the orientations of the optical elements of the setup are optimized in order to minimize the propagation of the noise. We also provide a tolerance study to achieve 2% accuracy for the Stokes vector and Mueller matrix metrology. These analyses are conducted as a function of the incident state of polarization and of the Mueller matrix to be measured, respectively. The optimized system is implemented and calibrated in the laboratory. We evaluate its repeatability over 24 h of operation, and the dependence with the temperature is discussed. In addition, we include a study related to the speed of taking the measurements. Finally, we provide some experimental measurements of different Stokes vectors and Mueller matrices, validating the proposed prototypes.
我们展示了基于铁电液晶（FLC）面板的斯托克斯和穆勒偏振计的设计。该仪器已完成，并进行了时间序列测量。一个FLC器件被建模为一个单轴双折射波片，其两个稳定的光轴方向可通过平方电信号切换。对液晶器件的光学参数（相位延迟和快轴的两个稳定方向）进行了校准。然后对装置的光学元件的方向进行优化，以尽量减少噪声的传播。我们还进行了公差研究，以实现斯托克斯矢量和穆勒矩阵计量2%的精度。这些分析分别作为入射偏振态和要测量的穆勒矩阵的函数进行。优化后的系统在实验室中得以实现并进行了校准。我们评估了其在24小时运行期间的重复性，并讨论了其与温度的相关性。此外，我们还进行了一项与测量速度相关的研究。最后，我们提供了不同斯托克斯矢量和穆勒矩阵的一些实验测量结果，验证了所提出的原型。
