Improved Method for Calibrating a Stokes Polarimeter

Published

December 10, 2007

Author(s)

Bruno Boulbry, J C. Ramella-Roman, Thomas A. Germer

Abstract

We present a method for calibrating polarimeters that uses a set of well-characterized reference polarizations and makes no assumptions about the optics contained in the polarimeter other than their linearity. The method requires that a matrix be constructed that contains the data acquired for each of the reference polarization states and that this matrix be pseudoinverted. Since the matrix is usually singular, we improve the method by performing the pseudoinversion by singular value decomposition, keeping only the four largest singular values. We demonstrate the calibration technique using an imaging polarimeter based upon liquid crystal variable retarders and with light emitting diode (LED) illumination centered at 472 nm, 525 nm, and 630 nm. We generate the reference polarizations by an unpolarized source, a single polarizer, and a Fresnel rhomb. This method is particularly useful when calibrations are performed on field-grade instruments at a centrally maintained facility and when a traceability chain needs to be maintained.

Citation

Applied Optics

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

ellipsometry, imaging, polarimetry, Stokes

Citation

Boulbry, B. , Ramella-Roman, J. and Germer, T. (2007), Improved Method for Calibrating a Stokes Polarimeter, Applied Optics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=841092 (Accessed May 11, 2026)

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