Star Test Polarimetry is a method of inferring polarization information in a single irradiance measurement from the shape of a point spread function [1]. We present the optical design of an image sampling polarimeter that utilizes a stress engineered optical element to image the polarization states of scattered light collected by a lens across a given field. In our scheme, an intermediate image is sampled by a pinhole array and a relay system projects the polarization dependent point spread functions to a CCD. In this way, we show polarization mapping of a sample using a single irradiance image.
We explore how a class of unconventionally polarized beams can be applied to such problems as aerosol polarimetry. One such beam can be formed by the superposition of right and left circular-polarized beams combined in a Twyman-Green Interferometer, and adjusted with linear tilt. Such superposition results in a beam that repeatedly traverses the equator of the Poincaré sphere in one of the beams spatial dimensions, such that an image of light scattered from the beam can yield the phase function of the scatterers without temporal modulation of the input polarization. An equivalent, but more robust method, uses a specially designed Nomarski prism arrangement to introduce a known angular shear between right and left circularly polarized fields.
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