Related papers: Polarimetry from the Ground Up
The use of polarimetric techniques is nowadays widespread among solar and stellar astronomers. However, notwithstanding the recommandations that have often been made about the publication of polarimetric results in the astronomical…
The maturity of current detectors based on technologies that range from solid state to gases renewed the interest for X-ray polarimetry, raising the enthusiasm of a wide scientific community to improve the performance of polarimeters as…
A new method for absolute polarimetric calibration of large telescopes is presented. The proposed method is highly accurate and is based on the calibration of a small sub-aperture, which is then extended to the full system by means of…
This book outlines the basic physical principles and practical methods of polarimetric remote sensing of Solar System objects and summarizes numerous advanced applications of polarimetry in geophysics and planetary astrophysics. In the…
Polarimetry remains a largely unexploited technique in observational X-ray astronomy which could provide insight in the study of the strong gravity and magnetic fields at the core of the Constellation-X observational program. Adding a…
Modern dual-polarization receivers allow a radio telescope to characterize the full polarization state of incoming insterstellar radio waves. Many astronomers incorrectly consider a polarimeter to be the "backend" of the telescope. We go to…
In-line polarimeters perform non-destructive polarization measurements of optical signals, and play a critical role in monitoring and controlling the polarization environment in for example optical networks. While current in-line…
Astronomical polarimetry is a powerful technique that can provide physical information sometimes difficult or impossible to obtain by any other type of observation. Almost every class of binary star can benefit from polarimetric…
The physics programme of the ILC requires polarimetry with yet unprecedented precision. This note focusses on aspects of the upstream polarimeter as described in the ILC Reference Design Report which are not compatible with the…
We have built and tested a compact, low-cost, but very-high-performance astronomical polarimeter based on a continuously rotating half-wave plate and a high-speed imaging detector. The polarimeter is suitable for small telescopes up to ~1 m…
We briefly discuss the history of X-ray polarimetry for astronomical applications including a guide to the appropriate statistics. We also provide an introduction to some of the new techniques discussed in more detail elsewhere in these…
Due to the continuous developments in polarimetric instrumentation, which will become even more dramatic in the near future with the availability of new generation solar telescopes, we are now severely confronted with a variety of new…
The B-Machine Telescope is the culmination of several years of development, construction, characterization and observation. The telescope is a departure from standard polarization chopping of correlation receivers to a half wave plate…
In recent decades, the relevance of polarimetry in planetary sciences and astronomy has increased rapidly. Polarization is a fundamental property of light and can be modified by any scattering event. As such, polarization yields additional…
Many spectacular polarimetric images have been obtained in recent years with adaptive optics (AO) instruments at large telescopes because they profit significantly from the high spatial resolution. This paper summarizes some basic…
We review the algebraic definition of the efficiency of a polarization modulation scheme, which is commonly adopted for solar and stellar spectro-polarimetry applications, and generalize it to allow distinct states of the modulation cycle…
In the last decade, imaging polarimeters based on micropolarizer arrays have been developed for use in terrestrial remote sensing and metrology applications. Micropolarizer-based sensors are dramatically smaller and more mechanically robust…
Well over 700 exoplanets have been detected to date. Only a handful of these have been observed directly. Direct observation is extremely challenging due to the small separation and very large contrast involved. Imaging polarimetry offers a…
We present experimental results on a method to perform polarimetry on ensembles of single photons. Our setup is based on a measurement method known to be optimal for estimating the state of two level systems. The setup has no moving parts…
In this chapter we present a brief summary of methods, instruments and calibration techniques used in modern astronomical polarimetry in the optical wavelengths. We describe the properties of various polarization devices and detectors used…