Related papers: Polarimetry from the Ground Up
On the final day of the Stellar Polarimetry conference, participants split up into three "breakout sessions" to discuss the future of the field in the areas of instrumentation, upcoming opportunities, and community priorities. This…
Polarization is one of light's most versatile degrees of freedom for both classical and quantum applications. The ability to measure light's state of polarization and changes therein is thus essential; this is the science of polarimetry. It…
This study is concerned with the design of a Mueller imaging polarimeter for the visualization of spatially-varying Mueller matrix fields. A simplified calibration procedure is advocated, where all the optical elements are calibrated…
We review the tools and procedures for the analysis of the data collected by X-ray photoelectric gas polarimeters, like the ones on-board the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). Although many of such tools are in principle common…
X-ray polarimetry of solar flares is still a not well established field of observation of our star. Past polarimeters were not able to measure with a high significance the polarization in X-rays from solar flares. Moreover, they had no…
The control of polarization, an essential property of light, is of wide scientific and technological interest. The general problem of generating arbitrary time-varying states of polarization (SOP) has always been mathematically formulated…
Many objects on the sky exhibit a centrosymmetric polarization pattern, particularly in cases involving single scattering around a central source. Utilizing a novel liquid crystal device (the ``theta cell'') that transforms the coordinate…
We present a novel system to calibrate millimeter-wave polarimeters for CMB polarization measurements. This technique is an extension of the conventional metal mirror rotation approach, however it employs cryogenically-cooled blackbody…
Science opportunities and recommendations concerning optical/infrared polarimetry for the upcoming decade in the fields of planetary systems and star formation. Community-based White Paper to Astro2010 in response to the call for such…
An easily constructed and operated polarimeter precisely determines the relative Stokes parameters that characterize the polarization of laser light. The polarimeter is calibrated in situ without removing or realigning its optical elements,…
Fifty years after the very first sounding rocket measurement of cosmic X-ray polarization, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission has effectively opened a new window into the X-ray sky. Prior to launch of IXPE, an extensive…
We demonstrate a polarimetry technique based on geometric phase measurements. The technique can be used to obtain either the polarization state of a light beam or the properties of a polarizing optical system. On the one hand, we apply our…
Given its unchallenged capabilities in terms of sensitivity and spatial resolution, the combination of imaging spectropolarimetry and numeric Stokes inversion represents the dominant technique currently used to remotely sense the physical…
This article aims to provide a brief overview of both established and novel ellipsometry techniques, as well as their applications. Ellipsometry is an indirect optical technique in that information about the physical properties of a sample…
SOUTH POL will be a survey of the Southern sky in optical polarized light. It will use a newly designed polarimetric module at an 80cm Robotic Telescope. Telescope and polarimeter will be installed at CTIO, Chile, in late 2012. The initial…
The vast majority of Shape-from-Polarization (SfP) methods work under the oversimplified assumption of using orthographic cameras. Indeed, it is still not well understood how to project the Stokes vectors when the incoming rays are not…
Polarimetric imaging aims to recover polarimetric parameters, including Total Intensity (TI), Degree of Polarization (DoP), and Angle of Polarization (AoP), from captured polarized measurements. In real-world scenarios, these measurements…
The historical development of ground based astronomical telescopes leads us to expect that space-based astronomical telescopes will need to be operational for many decades. The exchange of scientific instruments in space will be a…
Adaptive Optics is a prime example of how progress in observational astronomy can be driven by technological developments. At many observatories it is now considered to be part of a standard instrumentation suite, enabling ground-based…
The geometric phase is usually treated as a quantity modulo 2\pi, a convention carried over from early work on the subject. The results of a series of optical interference experiments involving polarization of light, done by the present…