Patent Application: US-22404102-A

Abstract:
in a polarimeter for analyzing a state of polarization of a light beam incident thereon , the polarimeter including first and second variable retarders configured to exhibit first and second retardance values , respectively , variable over an overall retardance range , and a detector arrangement , a method includes the steps of directing the light beam through the first and second variable retarders and sweeping a selected one of the first and second retardance values progressively and unidirectionally through at least a part of the overall retardance range to produce a plurality of retardance values . the method further includes the steps of , for the plurality of retardance values , detecting at the detector arrangement at least a spatial portion of the light beam and extracting the state of polarization based on the spatial portion of the light beam detected at the detector arrangement corresponding to the plurality of retardance values .

Description:
the following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context of a patent application and its requirements . various modifications to the described embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and the generic principles herein may be applied to other embodiments . thus , the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiment shown but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein . the configuration of a polarimeter manufactured in accordance with the present invention is shown in fig3 a . a polarimeter 100 includes first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b , respectively , and a detector arrangement ( indicated by a box 103 ), which in the embodiment shown includes an analyzer 104 and a detector 106 . analyzer 104 may be , for example , a vertical linear polarizer such that any light that falls onto detector 106 is always of vertical linear polarization . for instance , first lc variable retarder 102 a may be aligned with its optic axis ( not shown ) aligned with the optic axis ( not shown ) of analyzer 104 , and second lc variable retarder 102 b may , for example , be aligned with its optic axis ( not shown ) at a 45 ° angle with respect to the optic axes ( not shown ) of the first lc variable retarder and the analyzer . polarimeter 100 also includes a controller 108 , which controls first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b as well as detector 106 . first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b may be based , for example , on a nematic liquid crystal material . controller 108 is configured to apply voltage signals 110 a and 110 b to first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b , respectively , so as to control the retardance values of the lc variable retarders . voltage signals 110 a and 110 b may be , for example , square wave ac voltage signals or dc signals , depending on the lc material used in the lc variable retarders . for example , ac voltage signals are appropriate for use with nematic lc materials . controller 108 is also arranged such that , as input light 37 enters polarimeter 100 , controller 108 synchronizes the signal detection process at detector 106 with the control of the retardance values at first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b in a predetermined way , as will be described in detail immediately hereinafter . controller 108 is configured to apply a set of predetermined voltage values to first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b such that lc variable retarders progressively and unidirectionally “ sweep ” through a range of retardance values . in other words , unlike previously known liquid crystal based polarimeters in which the retarders are stepped between specific , discrete retardance values as data are taken at each of these discrete retardance values ( as shown in fig2 e ), the retardance values of first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b of polarimeter 100 are progressively and unidirectionally varied while sampling of the signal at detector 106 is synchronized with the retardance sweeps to take a large number of measurements throughout the retardance sweeps . therefore , polarimeter 100 manufactured in accordance with the present invention is referred to herein as a retardance sweep polarimeter . the details of such retardance “ sweeping ” is described in further detail immediately hereinafter . referring now to fig3 b in conjunction with fig3 a , an exemplary scheme of retardance values versus time for the lc variable retarders of the retardance sweep polarimeter of the present invention is illustrated . a graph 120 includes a vertical axis 121 representing retardance ( in units of waves λ ) and a horizontal axis 122 representing time ( in arbitrary units ). a first , solid line 123 shows the retardance value settings of first lc variable retarder 102 a , and a second , dashed line 125 shows the retardance value settings of second lc variable retarder 102 b . as can be seen in fig3 b , the first lc variable retarder is initially set to a retardance value of approximately λ , then , at a time t 1 , the retardance value of the first lc variable retarder is made to fall ( i . e ., “ sweep ”) until the retardance value reaches approximately λ / 4 at a time t 2 , from which time the retardance value of the first lc variable retarder is held at approximately λ / 4 . the reduction in retardance may be effected , for example , by the application of an increased voltage to first lc variable retarder 102 a by controller 108 . similarly , the retardance value of the second lc variable retarder is held at an initial value of approximately λ until time t 2 , at which time the retardance value is made to fall past λ / 4 at a time t 3 . in other words , the first lc variable retarder sweeps the retardance range of λ to λ / 4 between times t 1 and t 2 while the second lc variable retarder is held at a retardance value of λ . then , while the first lc variable retarder is held at a retardance value of λ / 4 , the second lc variable retarder is swept in retardance value over the range λ to λ / 4 between times t 2 and t 3 . therefore , a time period between times t 1 and t 2 , indicated by a double headed arrow 127 a , may be considered to be the time period for a retardance sweep # 1 , and a time period between times t 2 and t 3 , indicated by a double headed arrow 127 b , may be considered to be the time period for a retardance sweep # 2 . in the example shown in fig3 b , sweep # 1 predominantly provides polarization information on the stokes components s 1 and s 3 , while sweep # 2 predominantly provides information on component s 2 . it is noted that the retardance values shown in graph 120 are only approximate . in other words , the specific retardance values terminating these retardance value ranges for the first and second lc variable retarders need not be set with great accuracy in the polarimeter of the present invention in order to obtain the desired polarization information of input light because , as will be described hereinafter , the stokes parameter information is extracted from a series of data sets including a plurality of measurements made during each sweep . it is not necessary to set the start and end retardance values to the approximate values of λ and λ / 4 . in fact , an infinite variety of retardance value ranges are suitable for use in the present invention . the retardance sweeps are generally from higher to lower retardance values in the case of nematic lc material - based variable retarders since this direction corresponds to increasing applied voltage signals , to which the nematic lc material responds more quickly . intensity profiles at detector 106 are recorded synchronously with the retardance sweeps then analyzed to extract the desired polarization information . the light intensity data collected at detector 106 is dependent on the state of polarization of input light 37 ; that is , each sop will have a unique detector signature . it is emphasized that the polarimeter of the present invention yields complete polarization information without the need for high frequency modulation of the variable retarders , high voltage driver electronics or lock - in amplifiers and / or detectors . especially in contrast to the variable retarder oscillation and lock - in detection scheme discussed in the background section , the polarimeter of the present invention requires only a progressive , unidirectional retardance sweep rather than repeated retardance oscillation . that is , the polarimeter of the present invention achieves fast , sop measurements using low cost lc variable retarders and detection system in place of expensive electro - optic or photoelastic modulators with lock - in detection . in order to minimize noise and error due to time - dependent shifts in input light polarization , it is desired to obtain this detector signature in as short a time as possible . for instance , it is possible to improve the response time of a variable retarder based on a nematic liquid crystal material by taking advantage of the transient nematic effect ( tne ). tne is a technique of overshooting a voltage change in order to increase the speed of the lc response . for example , to change a lc retarder from one retardance to a second retardance , rather than just changing the voltage to the steady - state value for the new retardance , the voltage change is temporarily greatly increased . 18 the polarimeter of the present invention takes advantage of the high speed obtainable with tne and the versatility and low cost of lc materials . by taking advantage of tne , it is possible to apply predetermined voltage signals from controller 108 so as to cause first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b to sweep through a range of retardance values very rapidly . in order to understand the operation of polarimeter 100 as shown in fig3 a , the theory behind polarimeter 100 is described using mueller matrix formulation . 19 , 20 as is well known , each optical component in an optical system may be represented as a 4 × 4 matrix called a mueller matrix . since the initial sop of input light may be represented by an input stokes vector , the sop of input light after passing through the optical component is conveniently provided by an output stokes vector resulting from multiplying the input stokes vector by the mueller matrix of the optical component . the mueller matrices for some polarization optical components of interest are listed below : retarder , optic   axis   0 ∘ , retardance   of   δ :  ( 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 cos  ( δ ) sin  ( δ ) 0 0 - sin  ( δ ) cos  ( δ ) ) ( 5 ) retarder , optic   axis   45 ∘ , retardance   of   δ :  ( 1 0 0 0 0 cos  ( δ ) 0 - sin  ( δ ) 0 0 1 0 0 sin  ( δ ) 0 cos  ( δ ) ) ( 6 ) linear   polarizer , optic   axis   0 ∘ :  ( 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ) ( 7 ) furthermore , an optical arrangement consisting of several optical components in series may itself be represented by a single mueller matrix , which is constructed by multiplying the mueller matrices for the optical components in the order in which input light encounters the components . for an ideal , retardance sweep polarimeter ( i . e ., no loss , no noise , no misalignment , etc .) of fig3 a , the resulting mueller matrix for the combination of first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b and analyzer 104 is perfect   lc   polarimeter :  1 / 2  ( 1 cos  ( δ   1 ) sin  ( δ   1 )  sin  ( δ   2 ) cos  ( δ   2 )  sin  ( δ   1 ) 1 cos  ( δ   1 ) sin  ( δ   1 )  sin  ( δ   2 ) cos  ( δ   2 )  sin  ( δ   1 ) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ) , ( 8 ) which is obtained by matrix multiplication of the matrices in eqs . ( 5 )-( 7 ). however , an ideal polarimeter is generally a mathematical abstract . for instance , the alignment of the optic axes of the lc variable retarders is rarely exactly 45 ° in actual devices , which would provide additional non - zero elements on the mueller matrix of eqs . ( 6 ). furthermore , losses due to effects such as polarization scattering and retardance - dependent etalon effects ( e . g ., diattenuation ) would require additional matrices not represented in eqs . ( 5 )-( 6 ). such non - ideal effects add to the complexity of the mueller matrix for the polarimeter , but nevertheless a mueller matrix for each real - life polarimeter does exist . as will be further described , it is recognized in the context of the present invention that determination of the full , exact mueller matrix for the non - ideal , real life polarimeter is not necessary to achieve a useful and accurate polarimeter . in the retardance sweep polarimeter of the present invention as shown in fig3 a , the retardance values of first and second lc variable retarders 102 a and 102 b are rapidly swept by application of the appropriate voltage from controller 108 . it is further recognized that the actual retardance values of the first and second lc variable retarders are not required to accurately obtain polarization information regarding input light incident on the retardance sweep polarimeter , as will be discussed in further detail immediately hereinafter . as shown in fig3 b , at the onset of each of retardance sweeps # 1 and # 2 , the retardance of one lc variable retarder is caused to begin changing rapidly with applied voltage ( and thereby time ). noting that there is a one - to - one correspondence between time and retardance after application of a predetermined voltage signal ( e . g ., a voltage step ), the parameters in the following derivations are considered to be functions of time rather than retardance . it is notable that the following derivation may also be performed in terms of the measurement point index , i . e ., the index number of the sampling points at which detector measurements are taken . considering first the intensity signal as detected at detector 106 of fig3 a , the light incident on the detector in this case is always of a known polarization due to the presence of analyzer 104 . therefore , the detector may be considered to provide an accurate measure of the first stokes component ( i . e ., total light intensity ) for the stokes vector of light which has passed through the polarimeter . the relation may be expressed as ( s 0 ′  ( t ) -- -- -- ) = ( a  ( t ) b  ( t ) c  ( t ) d  ( t ) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- )  ( s 0 s 1 s 2 s 3 ) ( 9 ) a ( t ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t )= time - dependent elements of the top row of the mueller matrix for the polarimeter s ′ 0 ( t )= a ( t ) s 0 + b ( t ) s 0 + c ( t ) s 2 + d ( t ) s 3 = intensity signal at detector , and s 0 , s 1 , s 2 , s 3 = stokes parameters of the incident light . the 4 × 4 matrix in eq . ( 9 ) is the mueller matrix for the non - ideal polarimeter , i . e ., including manufacturing imperfections , misalignments , etc . the dashes in eq . ( 9 ) represent vector and matrix elements which are not of concern because the retardance sweep polarimeter is not sensitive to those elements . accordingly , it is desired to extract the elements in the top row of the retardance sweep polarimeter mueller matrix as a function of time ( to be described ) for the retardance sweeps , i . e ., the a ( t ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t ) functions . then , once these functions are known , the detected waveform s 0 ′( t ) may be least squares fit with the unknown stokes components s 0 , s 1 , s 2 and s 3 as floated parameters . the stokes parameters s 0 , s 1 , s 2 and s 3 of the incident light are the desired polarization information . it is notable that there exists an infinite number of measurement sets from which the stokes vector projections may be extracted because a projection along any arbitrary axis of the poincaré sphere is related to the projection along the desired axis through a transformation . the process of determining the transformation is equivalent to calibrating the polarimeter . therefore , determining the a ( f ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t ) functions is the calibration process . the calibration is accomplished by application of a series of input light beams with known sop and recording the signal detected at the detector . determination of the four desired mueller matrix elements a ( t ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t ) in eq . ( 9 ) requires the application of four known polarizations and the subsequent recording of four intensity waveforms , which may be denoted p1 , p2 , p3 and p4 . a convenient , but certainly not the only way to perform this process is to sequentially apply light of horizontal linear polarization , vertical linear polarization , + 45 ° linear polarization and right circular polarization in succession while each time sweeping through the retardance values as described above in reference to fig3 b . by substituting the corresponding stokes vectors for the known input polarization states into eq . ( 9 ), the following relationships are obtained : ( p   1  ( t ) -- -- -- ) = ( a  ( t ) b  ( t ) c  ( t ) d  ( t ) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- )  ( 1 1 0 0 )  → p   1  ( t ) = a  ( t ) + b  ( t ) ( 10 ) ( p   2  ( t ) -- -- -- ) = ( a  ( t ) b  ( t ) c  ( t ) d  ( t ) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- )  ( 1 - 1 0 0 )  → p   2  ( t ) = a  ( t ) - b  ( t ) ( 11 ) ( p   3  ( t ) -- -- -- ) = ( a  ( t ) b  ( t ) c  ( t ) d  ( t ) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- )  ( 1 0 1 0 )  → p   3  ( t ) = a  ( t ) + c  ( t ) ( 12 ) ( p   4  ( t ) -- -- -- ) = ( a  ( t ) b  ( t ) c  ( t ) d  ( t ) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- )  ( 1 0 0 1 )  → p   4  ( t ) = a  ( t ) + d  ( t ) ( 13 ) from eqs . ( 10 )-( 13 ), it is straight forward to extract the desired a ( t ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t ) functions : the aforedescribed calibration process results in four 1 - d arrays for the functions a ( t ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t ), with the number of elements in the array being dependent upon the sweep duration and sampling speed . for example , typical sweep times in an exemplary polarimeter range from a few milliseconds up to tens of milliseconds , with typical array sizes of a hundred elements . the a ( t ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t ) functions may be thought of as a set of basis functions such that the detected intensity profile s 0 ′( t )= a ( t ) s 0 + b ( t ) s 1 + c ( t ) s 2 + d ( t ) s 3 , which is transmitted through the polarimeter , is a linear combination of these basis functions with stokes components s 0 , s 1 , s 2 and s 3 of the incident light as the weighting factors . examples of calibration curves for the two retardance sweeps according to fig3 b are shown in fig4 a and 4b . a graph 130 , shown in fig4 a , includes the calculated values versus time for a ( t ) ( a solid line 132 a ), b ( t ) ( a dotted line 132 b ), c ( t ) ( a dashed line 132 c ) and d ( t ) ( a dot - dash combination line 132 d ) for the aforedescribed retardance sweep # 1 . similarly , a graph 135 of fig4 b includes the calculated values versus time for a ( t ) ( a solid line 137 a ), b ( t ) ( a line 137 b ), c ( t ) ( a dashed line 137 c ) and d ( t ) ( a dot - dash combination line 137 d ) for the aforedescribed retardance sweep # 2 . by using these functions a ( t ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t ) as basis functions , the stokes parameters for any input light may be calculated by curve fitting . in this way , since any non - ideal characteristic of the polarimeter is absorbed in the calculation of the a ( t ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t ) functions , imperfections in the polarimeter system are accounted for ( i . e ., calibrated out ) in the calculation of the sop of incident light . for example , it is noted that the c ( t ) curve in fig4 a should be a straight horizontal line according to the mueller matrix for the ideal polarimeter , eq . ( 6 ), but the measured values of detected intensity are not constant due to the fact that the actual polarimeter on which these measurements were made is not an ideal device . by accounting for such deviations from theory in the calibration process , the sop of the input light may be calculated with a high degree of accuracy . turning now to fig5 an example of the extraction of the full sop for an input light beam is shown performed using calibrated , polarimeter 100 as shown in fig3 a . a graph 140 of fig5 includes a plurality of dots , representing the actual data taken , as well as curves 142 a and 142 b obtained by curve fitting the actual data during retardance sweeps # 1 and # 2 , respectively . the best fit curves 142 a and 142 b are found using a least - squares fitting routine using a linear combination of the basis functions a ( t ), b ( t ), c ( t ) and d ( t ) as the model function , thereby fitting the two retardance sweeps simultaneously to find the stokes parameters s 0 , s 1 , s 2 and s 3 for the incident light . the data , from which the stokes vector is extracted , in the case shown in fig5 is a 200 element long array . the use of the fitting routine effectively includes contributions from all 200 elements . continuing to refer to fig5 it is emphasized that all of the plurality of data points collected during the retardance sweep procedure are utilized in the calculation of the sop in the polarimeter of the present invention . this characteristic of the present invention is in contrast to , for example , the aforementioned step - wise approach of oldenbourg et al ., in which only four discrete data points are used to calculate the stokes parameters . there is a significant signal - to - noise advantage to utilizing all of the data collected in the retardance sweeps rather than only four points . furthermore , the speed enhancement achieved by the use of tne allows the full data set from the retardance sweeps to be collected over an extremely short time frame of a few to up to tens of milliseconds . as a result , the retardance sweep polarimeter of the present invention is less susceptible to noise in comparison to prior art polarimeters , and measurement - to - measurement reproducibility error of less than 0 . 1 % has been achieved , even with a largely fluctuating source ( e . g ., power fluctuations on the order of up to 20 % over a time scale of tens of seconds ). although each of the aforedescribed embodiments have been illustrated with various components having particular respective orientations , it should be understood that the present invention may take on a variety of specific configurations with the various components being located in a wide variety of positions and mutual orientations and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention . furthermore , suitable equivalents may be used in place of or in addition to the various components , the function and use of such substitute or additional components being held to be familiar to those skilled in the art and are therefore regarded as falling within the scope of the present invention . for example , although the aforedescribed example embodiment utilizes two sets of retardance sweeps to obtain the complete stokes vector , it is also possible to calculate all of the stokes vector components using a single sweep by using a simultaneous , concerted sweep of both retarders . the retarders may be synchronously swept at different rates in a manner analogous to the aforedescribed spinning waveplate approach , in which two passive waveplates are rotated at different rates . proper timing of the synchronous sweeps would enable the extraction of full sop data in a single set of measurements ( rather than two sequential sweeps ). alternatively , the retardance sweeps of the two retarders may start and end at different times , with the sweeps partially overlapping during a certain time period , while light intensity data detected at the detector arrangement is recorded and analyzed to extract the polarization information . in other words , the retardance sweeps of the retarders need not be triggered simultaneously , as long as the sweeps are performed in a reproducible fashion so as to enable reproducible measurement and calibration . another possible modification is the use of faster relaxation time liquid - crystal material . with a standard nematic lc , which can be switched quickly in one retardance sweep direction but not as quickly in the reverse sweep direction , thereby decreasing the duty cycle . faster relaxation time , and thereby quick retardance sweeps in both directions , would increase the duty - cycle and , if the sweep times are fast enough , data could also be recorded in both sweep directions . moreover , it would be possible to calibrate the retardance sweep polarimeter of the present invention over a certain range of wavelengths , then interpolate the calibration data to enable the measurement of sop data at wavelengths away from the calibration range of wavelengths . therefore , the present examples are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive , and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein , but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims . 1 . j . m . daniels , “ optimum design of a polarimeter for visible light ,” review of scientific instruments , vol . 57 , no . 8 , 1986 . 2 . r . m . a . azzam , “ arrangement of four photodetectors for measuring the state of polarization of light ,” optics letters , vol . 10 , no . 7 , 1985 . 3 . a . s . siddiqui , “ optical polarimeter having four channels ,” u . s . pat . no . 5 , 081 , 348 , issued jan . 14 , 1992 . 4 . l . b . allard et al ., “ polarimeter ,” u . s . pat . no . 6 , 043 , 887 , issued mar . 28 , 2000 . 5 . e . compain et al ., “ polarimeter and corresponding measuring method ,” u . s . pat . no . 6 , 177 , 995 b1 , issued jan . 23 , 2001 . 6 . m . abraham et al ., “ micropolarimeter ,” u . s . pat . no . 6 , 268 , 915 b1 , issued jul . 31 , 2001 . 7 . t . erdogan et al ., “ in - 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