Optical integration of a real-valued function by measurement of a Stokes Parameter

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an optical method to compute the integral of a real-valued function by encoding it in polarization phase and measuring a Stokes parameter, offering a novel optical integration technique.

Contribution

The authors experimentally implement an optical algorithm for function integration using polarization encoding and Stokes parameter measurement, advancing optical computational methods.

Findings

Successful encoding of a function in polarization phase

Accurate retrieval of the integral via Stokes parameter measurement

Analysis of the system's performance as an integration device

Abstract

We experimentally implement an optical algorithm for integration of a real-valued bivariate func- tion. A user-defined function is encoded in the position-dependent phase of one of the polarization components of an optical beam. The integral of this function is retrieved by measuring a Stokes parameter of the polarization. We analyze the performance of the system as an integration device.