Vala Daniel, Koleják Pierre, Postava Kamil, Kildemo Morten, Provazníková Pavlína, Pištora Jaromír
Opt Express. 2021 Mar 29;29(7):10434-10450. doi: 10.1364/OE.418186.
Mueller matrix ellipsometry has been used to precisely characterize quartz waveplates for demanding applications in the semiconductor industry and high precision polarimetry. We have found this experimental technique to be beneficial to use because it enables us to obtain absolute and precise measurement of retardation in a wide spectral range, waveplate orientation, and compound waveplate adjustment. In this paper, the necessity of including the optical activity in the Mueller matrix model and data treatment is demonstrated. Particularly, the optical activity of the quartz influences the adjustment of misalignment between the perpendicularly oriented waveplates of the compound biplate. We demonstrate that omitting the optical activity from the model leads to inaccurate values of the misalignment. In addition, the depolarization effects caused by a finite monochromator bandwidth is included in the model. Incorporation of the optical activity to the Mueller matrix model has required a development of rigorous theory based on appropriate constitutive equations. The generalized Yeh's matrix algebra to bianisotropic media has been used for the calculation of the eigenmodes propagation in chiral materials with reduced symmetry. Based on the applied method, the authors have proposed approximated analytical form of the Mueller matrix representing optically active waveplate and biplate and provided discussion on the analytical and numerical limits of the method.
穆勒矩阵椭圆偏振测量法已被用于精确表征用于半导体行业和高精度偏振测量等苛刻应用的石英波片。我们发现这种实验技术很有用，因为它使我们能够在宽光谱范围内获得绝对且精确的相位延迟测量值、波片取向以及复合波片调整。本文证明了在穆勒矩阵模型和数据处理中纳入旋光性的必要性。特别是，石英的旋光性会影响复合双波片中垂直取向波片之间的失准调整。我们证明，从模型中忽略旋光性会导致失准值不准确。此外，模型中还包括了由有限单色仪带宽引起的去极化效应。将旋光性纳入穆勒矩阵模型需要基于适当的本构方程发展严格的理论。广义的叶矩阵代数用于各向异性介质，已被用于计算在手性材料中具有降低对称性的本征模传播。基于所应用的方法，作者提出了表示旋光波片和双波片的穆勒矩阵的近似解析形式，并对该方法的解析和数值极限进行了讨论。
