Patent ID: 7426021

Claim:
An interferometric optical analyzer apparatus for determining the linear response of an optical element (DUT) ( 26 ), comprising: light source means ( 10 ) for supplying substantially unpolarized coherent light whose optical frequency is swept continuously and monotonically as a function of time over a predetermined range; interferometer means ( 16 ) having input means ( 18 ) coupled to an output of the light source means ( 10 ), first and second arms ( 20 , 22 , 26 ; 46 ), the first arm ( 22 ) for receiving said optical element ( 26 ) in series therein and the second arm ( 20 ) being a reference path, and output means ( 24 ); and detection means for determining polarization-dependent power (P 1 ,P 2 ,P 3 ) of light at the interferometer output for each of three linearly-independent states of polarization and a fourth power comprising either one of a power (P 4 ) corresponding to a fourth linearly independent state of polarization and a total polarization-independent power (P) of said light at the interferometer output, the optical analyzer apparatus further comprising controller means ( 44 ) for controlling the sweep of the light source means and computing Jones matrix elements (J xx ,J xy ,J yx ,J yy ) from the at least four power measurements (P 1 ,P 2 ,P 3 ,P/P 4 ).