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The polarization of light is utilized in many technologies throughout science and engineering. The ability to transform one state of polarization to another is a key enabling technology. Common polarization transformers are simple polarizers and polarization rotators. Simple polarizers change the intensity depending on the input state and can only output a fixed polarized state, while polarization rotators rotates the input Stokes vector in the 3D Stokes space. We demonstrate an all-optical input-agnostic polarization transformer (AI-APT), which transforms all input states of polarization to a particular state that can be polarized or partially polarized. The output state of polarization and intensity depends solely on setup parameters, and not on the input state, thereby the AI-APT functions differently from simple polarizers and polarization rotators. The AI-APT is completely passive, and thus can be used as a polarization controller or stabilizer for single photons and ultrafast pulses. The AI-APT may open a new frontier of partially polarized ultrafast optics.

We present mathematical methods, based on convex optimization, for correcting non-physical coherency matrices measured in polarimetry. We also develop the method for recovering the coherency matrices corresponding to the smallest and largest values of the degree of polarization given the experimental data and a specified tolerance. We use experimental non-physical results obtained with the standard polarimetry scheme and a commercial polarimeter to illustrate these methods. Our techniques are applied in post-processing, which complements other experimental methods for robust polarimetry.

Evanescent waves are central to many technologies such as near-field imaging that beats the diffraction limit and plasmonic devices. Frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) is an experimental method commonly used to study evanescent waves. In this paper, we shape the incident beam of the FTIR process with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and measure light transmittance while varying the path length difference and interferometric visibility. Our results show that the transmittance varies with the path length difference and, thus, the intensity distribution of the shaped beam. Experiment and finite element method simulation produce results that agree. We also show, through simulations, that the transmittance can be controlled via other methods of beam shaping. Our work provides a proof-of-concept demonstration of the coherent control of the FTIR process, which could lead to advancements in numerous applications of evanescent waves and FTIR.

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