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This Letter shows the advantage of applying the complete temporal basis in polarimeters based on photoelastic modulators in lieu of the commonly used truncated temporal basis that results in a discrete selection of the Fourier harmonics used for data processing. Results are numerically and experimentally illustrated for a complete Mueller-matrix-based polarimeter on four photoelastic modulators.

We present a general method for redefining the permittivity and permeability tensors of a medium or structure exhibiting spatial dispersion (SD). The method effectively separates the electric and magnetic contributions that are intertwined in the traditional description of the SD-dependent permittivity tensor. The redefined material tensors are the ones to be used in the common methods for calculating the optical response of layered structures, thus enabling modeling of experiments in the presence of SD.

We extend the original method of Yeh [J. Opt. Soc. Am.69, 742 (1979)JOSAAH0030-394110.1364/JOSA.69.000742] for calculating the reflection and transmission from anisotropic layered structures to media exhibiting not only dielectric, but also magnetic anisotropy, as well as optical activity. We likewise establish the relationship between the optical activity and gyration tensors from the two most used constitutive relations for optically active media and illustrate the extended Yeh's method on a practically important example.

Optical activity is a fundamental effect of electrodynamics that was discovered more than 200 years ago. While optical activity is typically recognized by the rotation of the polarization of light as it propagates through a bulk medium, in certain configurations, the specular reflection of light on the surface of a material is also sensitive to its optical activity. Here, we show that the ellipsometric analysis of the light reflected at the surface of a gyrotropic but achiral crystal of AgGaS(2) allows the spectroscopic determination of its optical activity above the bandgap, where transmission methods are not applicable. This is the first clear spectroscopic determination of reflection optical activity in a crystal, and the values obtained are, to the best of our knowledge, the largest ever reported for a natural material. We also demonstrate that normal incidence transmission and reflection measurements probe different aspects of optical activity.

We demonstrate experimentally the validity of the partial spatial coherence formalism in Mueller polarimetry and show that, in a finite spatial resolution experiment, the measured response is obtained through convolving the theoretical one with the instrument function. The reported results are of primary importance for Mueller imaging systems.

In this Letter we describe an experiment in which coherent light is sent through a calcite crystal that separates the photons by their polarization. The two beams are then let to superpose, and this recombined beam is used to measure the Mueller matrix of the system. Results are interpreted according to our recent formalism of coherent superposition in material media. This is the first experimental implementation of a Young's experiment with complete polarimetry, and it is demonstrated that our method can be used for the experimental synthesis of optical devices with on-demand optical properties.

By applying the statistical definition of a depolarizing Mueller matrix we formally derive and physically interpret the differential matrix of a depolarizing homogeneous medium. The depolarization phenomenon being a direct consequence of the fluctuations of the six elementary polarization properties of the medium, the differential matrix contains the mean values and the variances of the properties, thus fully describing those from a statistical viewpoint. Similarly, the reduced coherency matrix associated with the G-symmetric component of the differential matrix has an immediate physical interpretation as being the covariance matrix of the three basic groups of polarization properties. The formal developments are illustrated on experimental examples.

In a depolarizing medium in which the optical properties are uniformly distributed, the logarithm of the Mueller matrix can be used to calculate the differential Mueller matrix. From the differential Mueller matrix, the 10 optical properties of a homogeneous depolarizing medium are recovered. A modified calculation is introduced for media showing small time-irreversal depolarization events. The benefits of this method are illustrated in the determination of circular dichroism and circular birefringence of a nickel sulfate hexahydrate crystal from spectroscopic Mueller matrix measurements.

Optical activity is a fundamental effect of electrodynamics that was discovered more than 200 years ago. While optical activity is typically recognized by the rotation of the polarization of light as it propagates through a bulk medium, in certain configurations, the specular reflection of light on the surface of a material is also sensitive to its optical activity. Here, we show that the ellipsometric analysis of the light reflected at the surface of a gyrotropic but achiral crystal of AgGaS(2) allows the spectroscopic determination of its optical activity above the bandgap, where transmission methods are not applicable. This is the first clear spectroscopic determination of reflection optical activity in a crystal, and the values obtained are, to the best of our knowledge, the largest ever reported for a natural material. We also demonstrate that normal incidence transmission and reflection measurements probe different aspects of optical activity.

We show that, by suitably defining the integral decomposition of a depolarizing Mueller matrix, it becomes possible to fully interpret the polarization response of the medium or structure under study in terms of mean values and variances-covariances of a set of six integral polarization properties. The latter appear as natural counterparts of the elementary (differential) polarization properties stemming from the differential decomposition of the Mueller matrix. However, unlike the differential decomposition, the integral one is always mathematically and physically realizable and is furthermore unambiguously defined inasmuch as a nondepolarizing estimate of the initial Mueller matrix is secured. The theoretical results are illustrated on an experimental example.

In the normal incidence backscattering configuration, a polarimetric measurement always preserves the reciprocal symmetry. For a reciprocal Jones matrix, the number of elementary polarization properties is reduced from six to four. In this work, the physical interpretation of these properties is examined and they are compared with the equivalent polarization properties in transmission. It is found that, with the exception of natural optical activity, a polarimetric backreflection experiment can essentially provide the same type of information about the anisotropy of a medium as a transmission analysis, although transmission and backreflection information comes in a completely different form. Experimental examples are provided to illustrate the discussion.

A reappraisal of the 1929 analysis of luminescence by Soleillet reveals the form of the Mueller matrix for fluorescence scattering whose parameters are directly defined in terms of the now-familiar fluorescence anisotropy parameter. If the scattering analyte is optically active, it is further shown how fluorescence detected circular dichroism and circularly polarized luminescence can be recovered, simultaneously and free of artifacts.

We claim that the so-called Jones birefringence and Jones dichroism effects, understood as new optical phenomena of difficult experimental observation, cannot be deduced from Jones publications and were proposed due to a misinterpretation of his original work.

In this Letter we present the equations to calculate the six independent polarization effects of an arbitrary normalized Mueller-Jones matrix corresponding to homogenous media. A comparison between this method and other inversion procedures is discussed, and the application of the analytic inversion to experimental Mueller matrices is illustrated.