Related papers: Spatial polarization modulators: distinguishing di…
Many biologically produced chiral molecules such as amino acids and sugars show a preference for left or right handedness (homochirality). Light reflected by biological materials such as algae and leaves therefore exhibits a small amount of…
We present the design of a point-and-shoot non-imaging full-Stokes spectropolarimeter dedicated to detecting life on Earth from an orbiting platform like the ISS. We specifically aim to map circular polarization in the spectral features of…
Does life exist outside our Solar System? A first step towards searching for life outside our Solar System is detecting life on Earth by using remote sensing applications. One powerful and unambiguous biosignature is the circular…
Homochirality is a generic and unique property of all biochemical life and the fractional circular polarization of light it induces therefore constitutes a potentially unambiguous biosignature.} However, while high-quality circular…
Context. Homochirality is a generic and unique property of life on Earth and is considered a universal and agnostic biosignature. Homochirality induces fractional circular polarization in the incident light that it reflects. Because this…
Linear (spectro) polarimetry is usually performed using separate photon flux measurements after spatial or temporal polarization modulation. Such classical polarimeters are limited in sensitivity and accuracy by systematic effects and…
The identification of a universal biosignature that could be sensed remotely is critical to the prospects for success in the search for life elsewhere in the universe. A candidate universal biosignature is homochirality, which is likely to…
Liquid crystal based spatial light modulators are widely used in applied optics due to their ability to continuously modulate the phase of a light field with very high spatial resolution. A common problem in these devices is the pixel…
We present SQUIDPOL, a low-cost, multi-channel optical imaging polarimeter that performs simultaneous linear polarization measurements using a rotating half-wave plate, a non-polarizing beam splitter, and four wire-grid filters. We show…
Spatial light modulators are versatile devices employed in a vast range of applications to modify the transverse phase or amplitude profile of an incident light beam. Most experiments are designed to use a specific polarization which…
A new technique based on superposition of two speckle patterns is proposed and demonstrated for controlled modulation of the spatial polarization distribution of the resultant speckle. It is demonstrated both theoretically and…
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…
Electric field enhancement mediated through sharp tips in scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) enables optical material analysis down to the 10-nm length scale, and even below. Nevertheless, mostly the…
Circular polarization spectroscopy has proven to be an indispensable tool in photosynthesis research and (bio)-molecular research in general. Oxygenic photosystems typically display an asymmetric Cotton effect around the chlorophyll…
Studies of the three-dimensional (3D) structures of galactic magnetic fields are now entering a new era, with broadband, highly sensitive radio observations and new analysis methods. To reveal the magnetic field configuration from the…
Can we capture shape and reflectance in stealth? Such capability would be valuable for many application domains in vision, xR, robotics, and HCI. We introduce structured polarization for invisible depth and reflectance sensing (SPIDeRS),…
We show that it is possible to measure polarization with a polarimeter that gets rid of the seeing while still measuring at a frequency well below that of the seeing. We study a standard polarimeter made of two retarders and a beamsplitter.…
We study modulation-free methods for producing sub-Doppler, dispersive line shapes for laser stabilization near the potassium D2 transitions at 767 nm. Polarization spectroscopy is performed and a comparison is made between the use of a…
Since specular reflection often exists in the real captured images and causes deviation between the recorded color and intrinsic color, specular reflection separation can bring advantages to multiple applications that require consistent…
Biological molecules are characterized by an intrinsic asymmetry known as homochirality. The result is optical activity of biological materials and circular polarization in the light scattered by microorganisms, cells of living organisms,…