Single-shot omnidirectional Stokes polarimetry

Abstract

Many active sensing applications benefit from measuring, as fast as possible, the polarization state of target reflections. Traditional polarimetry, however, relies on (1) the assumption of field transversality and (2) a given direction of wave propagation. When this is not known, one must regard the field as being three-dimensional, which inherently complicates the polarimetry due to experimental constraints imposed by the planar geometry of detector arrays. We demonstrate a single-shot, Stokes polarimetry approach that alleviates these limitations. The approach is based on the spatial Fourier analysis of the interference between the unknown wave and controlled reference fields.