ISSN:
1089-7623
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
,
Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology
Notes:
A computer-controlled four-detector photopolarimeter (FDP) has been constructed using four windowless planar-diffused Si photodiodes, operational amplifiers, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, and a personal computer with peripherals. A nonplanar light path is selected with incidence angles at the first three detectors of ∼65° and with rotations of ∼45° between the successive planes of incidence. The last detector, which is coated for minimum reflectance, intercepts the beam at a small angle and the residual light it reflects is dumped. A 1-mW He–Ne laser beam (λ=632.8 nm) passes through the polarizing optics of an ellipsometer to provide the polarization states needed for calibration and testing. With an optimum set of calibration states, the instrument matrix A is determined. The FDP is subsequently tested and found to correctly measure the normalized Stokes parameters of a large number of states with an average absolute error of ∼0.01, which is attributed to imperfections in the calibration optics. This first prototype instrument has a precision of ∼0.2%.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1139971
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