Patent ID: 7495764

Claim:
A polarimeter, comprising: a receiver that is configured to: receive a first polarization (P 1 ) of a signal and to split the first polarization of the signal into the in-phase (I P1 ) and quadrature (Q P1 ) components; and receive a second polarization (P 2 ) of the signal and to split the second polarization of the signal into the in-phase (I P2 ) and quadrature (Q P2 ) components; and a processor that is configured to: receive each of the in-phase and quadrature components ((I P1 ), (Q P1 ), (I P2 ), and (Q P2 )) of the first and second polarizations; and determine the Stokes polarization vector components (s 0 , s 1 , s 2 , and s 3 ) of the signal.