Determination of Stokes Vector from a Single Image Acquisition

Four Stokes parameters (1852) define the polarization state of light. Measured changes of the Stokes vector of light traversing an inhomogeneous sample are linked to the local anisotropies of absorption and refraction and are harnessed over an increasing range of applications in photonics, material, and space/earth observation. Several independent polarization sensitive measurements are usually required for determination of the all four Stokes parameters, which makes such characterization procedure time-consuming or requires complex setups. Here, a single-snapshot approach to Stokes polarimetry in transmission is introduced by use of a four-polarization camera with the on-chip integrated polarizers. A quarter-waveplate is added in front of the sample and is illuminated by a linearly polarized light. This approach is demonstrated by measuring birefringence Delta n approximate to 0.012$\Delta n\approx 0.012$ of spider silk of only approximate to 6 mu$\approx 6\nobreakspace \umu$m-diameter using microscopy, however, due to its generic nature, it is transferable to other spectral ranges and imaging applications, e.g., imaging from a fast moving satellite or drone or monitoring fast changing events such as phase transitions. Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) bounded spherulite imaged at 550 nm wavelength and the orientation map is calculated via the best fit procedure using 4-pol. camera.image