Measuring Mueller matrix of an arbitrary optical element with a fixed set of polarization optics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new experimental method to determine the Mueller matrix of any optical element using a fixed set of polarization optics and projection matrices, simplifying the process and reducing errors.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel projection method employing universal SU(2) gadgets to directly measure the Mueller matrix with a fixed polarization setup.

Findings

Experimental Mueller matrices match theoretical predictions

Method reduces measurement errors by maintaining fixed optical setup

Applicable to various optical elements like wave plates and free space

Abstract

We have described a novel way to determine the Mueller matrix of any optical element by using projection method. For this purpose, we have used two universal SU(2) gadgets for polarization optics to obtain projection matrix directly from the experiment. Mueller matrix has been determined using the experimentally obtained projection matrix for three known optical elements namely free space, half wave plate and quarter wave plate. Experimental matrices are in good agreement with the corresponding theoretical matrices. The error is minimized as the experimental conditions remains same for all measurements since we have used a fixed set of polarization optics i.e. there is no removal or insertion of an optical component during the experiment.