Open AccessInfluence of temporal averaging in the performance of a rotating retarder imaging Stokes polarimeter
Author(s) -
Ángel Lizana,
Juan Campos,
Albert Van Eeckhout,
Andrés Márquez
Publication year - 2020
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.385623
Subject(s) - retarder , optics , polarimeter , polarizer , stokes parameters , physics , noise (video) , signal to noise ratio (imaging) , polarimetry , materials science , birefringence , scattering , computer science , image (mathematics) , artificial intelligence , composite material
We study the optimum operating conditions for a rotating retarder fixed polarizer (RRFP) when the measurements are not quasi-instantaneous but time-averaged. We obtain the optimum retardance and retarder orientations as a function of the integrated angle interval. We also study how the increase in the number of time-averaged measurements leads to a better equally weighted variance (EWV) value, and thus, to a better performance of the polarimeter in terms of noise amplification for the case of additive noise. Two different analyzers configurations are studied in this work: uniformly spaced retarder angles and when measurements are taken at optimum angles (non-uniformly spaced angles). We also consider the case of polychromatic illumination. We discuss the best measurement conditions in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio depending on whether there is a fixed or a limited amount of photons per measurement.