Patent ID: 7336360

Claim:
An imaging polarimetry, comprising: a step of preparing a polarimetric imaging device, where a first birefringent prism pair, a second birefringent prism pair and an analyzer, through which light under measurement passes in sequence, and a device for obtaining a two-dimensional intensity distribution of the light having passed through the analyzer are provided, each birefringent prism pair comprises parallel flat plates in which two wedge-shaped retarders having the same apex angle are attached and directions of fast axes of the two retarders are orthogonal to each other, the second birefringent prism pair is arranged such that the direction of a principal axis of the second birefringent prism pair disagrees with the direction of a principal axis of the first birefringent prism pair, and the analyzer is arranged such that the direction of a transmission axis of the analyzer disagrees with the direction of the principal axis of the second birefringent prism pair; a step of launching the light under measurement into the polarimetric imaging device to obtain a two-dimensional intensity distribution; and an arithmetic step of obtaining a set of phase attribute functions of a measurement system, and also obtaining a parameter indicating a two-dimensional spatial distribution of a state of polarization (SOP) of the light under measurement by the use of the above obtained intensity distribution, wherein the set of phase attribute functions is a set of functions defined by properties of the polarimetric imaging device, and includes a function depending upon at least a first reference phase function (φ 1 (x, y)) as retardation of the first birefringent prism pair and a function depending upon at least a second reference phase function (φ 2 (x, y)) as retardation of the second birefringent prism pair, and by those functions themselves, or by addition of another function defined by the properties of the polarimetric imaging device, the set of phase attribute functions becomes a set of functions sufficient to determine the parameter indicating the two-dimensional spatial distribution of the SOP of the light under measurement.