Open AccessOptimal distribution of integration time for intensity measurements in Stokes polarimetry
Author(s) -
Xiaobo Li,
Tiegen Liu,
Bingjing Huang,
Zhanjie Song,
Haofeng Hu
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.23.027690
Subject(s) - stokes parameters , polarimetry , estimator , time delay and integration , lagrange multiplier , intensity (physics) , variance (accounting) , optics , distribution (mathematics) , mathematics , physics , statistics , scattering , mathematical analysis , mathematical optimization , accounting , business
We consider the typical Stokes polarimetry system, which performs four intensity measurements to estimate a Stokes vector. We show that if the total integration time of intensity measurements is fixed, the variance of the Stokes vector estimator depends on the distribution of the integration time at four intensity measurements. Therefore, by optimizing the distribution of integration time, the variance of the Stokes vector estimator can be decreased. In this paper, we obtain the closed-form solution of the optimal distribution of integration time by employing Lagrange multiplier method. According to the theoretical analysis and real-world experiment, it is shown that the total variance of the Stokes vector estimator can be significantly decreased about 40% in the case discussed in this paper. The method proposed in this paper can effectively decrease the measurement variance and thus statistically improves the measurement accuracy of the polarimetric system.