Patent ID: 7623236

Claim:
A spectroscopic polarimetry, comprising: a step of preparing a polarimetric spectroscope, where a first retarder, a second retarder and an analyzer, through which light under measurement passes in sequence, and a device for obtaining a spectral intensity of the light having passed through the analyzer are provided, the second retarder is arranged such that the direction of a principal axis of the second retarder disagrees with the direction of a principal axis of the first retarder, 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 retarder; a step of launching the light under measurement into the polarimetric spectroscope to obtain a spectral intensity; and an arithmetic step of obtaining a set of phase attribute functions of a measurement system, and also obtaining a parameter indicating a wavenumber-distribution of a state of polarization (SOP) of the light under measurement by the use of the above obtained spectral intensity, wherein the set of phase attribute functions is a set of functions defined by properties of the polarimetric spectroscope, and includes a function depending upon at least a first reference phase function (φ 1 (σ)) as retardation of the first retarder and a function depending upon at least a second reference phase function (φ 2 (σ)) as retardation of the second retarder, and by those functions themselves, or by addition of another function defined by the properties of the polarimetric spectroscope, the set of phase attribute functions becomes a set of functions sufficient to determine a parameter indicating a wavenumber-distribution of the SOP of the light under measurement.