High-speed portable polarimeter using a ferroelectric liquid crystal modulator

Laurent Bigué; Nicolas Cheney

doi:10.1117/12.733693

18 October 2007 High-speed portable polarimeter using a ferroelectric liquid crystal modulator

Laurent Bigué, Nicolas Cheney

Proceedings Volume 6682, Polarization Science and Remote Sensing III; 668205 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733693
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The implementation of an imaging polarimeter able to capture dynamic scenes is presented. Our prototype is designed to work at visible wavelengths and to operate at high-speed, ie above 200 Hz, contrary to commercial or laboratory liquid crystal polarimeters previously reported in the literature. It has been used in the laboratory with controlled illumination conditions (wavelength, coherence or incoherence, incidence, ...) as well as in a natural environment with sunlight or any lamp or light source. The device consists of commercial components whose cost is moderate. The polarizing element is based on a ferroelectric liquid crystal modulator which acts as a half-wave plate at its design wavelength. The device has been fully characterized and verified to work up to 1 kHz. It produces a 90° polarization rotation. In this Orthogonal State Configuration Imagery (OSCI), images in degree of polarization (DOP) can be obtained with simple post-processing of two consecutive images. With a commercial CCD camera, operation up to 360 Hz is demonstrated, resulting in images whose quality is equivalent to that of classical low speed polarimeters.

Citation Download Citation

Laurent Bigué and Nicolas Cheney "High-speed portable polarimeter using a ferroelectric liquid crystal modulator", Proc. SPIE 6682, Polarization Science and Remote Sensing III, 668205 (18 October 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733693

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