Stokes vector based polarization resolved second harmonic microscopy of starch granules

Abstract

We report on the measurement and analysis of the polarization state of second harmonic signals generated by starch granules, using a four-channel photon counting based Stokes-polarimeter. Various polarization parameters, such as the degree of polarization (DOP), the degree of linear polarization (DOLP), the degree of circular polarization (DOCP), and anisotropy are extracted from the 2D second harmonic Stokes images of starch granules. The concentric shell structure of a starch granule forms a natural photonic crystal structure. By integration over all the solid angle, it will allow very similar SHG quantum efficiency regardless of the angle or the states of incident polarization. Given type I phase matching and the concentric shell structure of a starch granule, one can easily infer the polarization states of the input beam from the resulting SH micrograph.