# Basis independent tomography of complex vectorial light fields by Stokes projections

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a basis-independent method for characterizing complex vectorial light fields using Stokes projections, enabling precise analysis of their non-separability with a novel interferometer.

## Contribution

It presents a new tomography technique relating concurrence to Stokes projections and a compact interferometer with a DMD for generating and analyzing vectorial light fields.

## Key findings

- Successful demonstration of basis-independent tomography.
- Quantitative analysis of non-separability in vector fields.
- Development of a versatile interferometer with DMD for light field control.

## Abstract

Complex vectorial light fields, non-separable in their polarization and spatial degree of freedom, are of relevance in a wide variety of fields encompassing microscopy, metrology, communication and topological studies. Controversially, they have been suggested as analogues to quantum entanglement, raising fundamental questions on the relation between non-separability in classical systems, and entanglement in quantum systems. Here we propose and demonstrate basis-independent tomography of arbitrary vectorial light fields by relating their concurrence to spatially resolved Stokes projections. We generate vector fields with controllable non-separability using a novel compact interferometer that incorporates a digital micro-mirror device (DMD), thus offering a holistic toolbox for the generation and quantitative analysis of arbitrary vectorial light fields.