Bandwidth and information in the design and analysis of polarimeters

Abstract

Polarimeters operate by making polarization-dependent alterations in the intensity of the optical field. Modulated polarimeters introduce controlled fluctuations as a function of time, spatial position, wavelength, angle of incidence, or any other independent variable. These fluctuations create channels in frequency space that can be used to carry the polarimetric information. Since polarimeters are then inherently multiplexed information systems, issues of noise, bandwidth, channel cross-talk, and system conditioning become immediately important. This paper reviews much of the work over the past two decades on polarimeter design, and presents some of the most recent work on hybrid and non-periodic modulation schemes that hold out potential for maximizing system bandwidth.