Characterization of spatial polarization fluctuations in scattered field

Abstract

We extend the concept of Poincare vector correlations for the characterization of spatial polarization fluctuations of scattered fields. Spatial (rather than temporal) dynamics of polarization in the scattered field is investigated experimentally by detecting instantaneous polarization with a specially designed polarization interferometer. Use of the Poincare-vector correlation in characterization is demonstrated by determining polarization dynamics of three different cases of scattered fields. This confirms usefulness of the proposed technique in diagnosis of scatterers. Under the condition of spatial ergodicity and Gaussian statistics of the scattered field, we replace the ensemble average of the instantaneous field with the space average, and estimate generalized Stokes parameters (GSPs) of the polarization speckles. Results of GSPs are used to obtain spatial correlation of the Poincare vectors.