Study and Applications of Polarization Characteristics of Optical Media using Stokes Mueller Matrix Polarimetry

Abstract

This thesis investigates various aspects of polarization measurement and analysis, with a particular emphasis on the study of polarization and material characteristics of optically absorbing materials (e.g. metal reflectors) using advanced techniques such as Stokes-Mueller formalism. Optical phenomena play a pivotal role in diverse scientific and technological domains, viz. telecommunications, imaging, and laser applications. Here, understanding the behaviour of light interacting with materials, particularly through reflection and transmission processes is required. The knowledge of refractive index is necessary not only to understand the effect of optical elements but also essential for designing optical components and optimizing system performance. In this work, novel techniques are presented to determine the refractive index in complex media, particularly in optically absorbing materials like metal reflectors. An analytical technique is introduced to retrieve the polarization ellipse from beam intensity measurements. It involves the estimation of the magnitude of resultant electric field vector and its polar angle for the reconstruction of polarization ellipse. This technique provides physical insights by establishing a point-by-point correspondence between the reconstructed ellipse and the experimentally measured intensities. newlineOne of the key contributions of this thesis is the development of a simple method for characterizing the polarization properties of metal reflectors in terms of Mueller matrix elements, for the prediction of material s optical response to arbitrary polarization. The matrix elements are inferred from the Stokes parameters of both incoming and outgoing beams, enabling the isolation of instrumental polarization from primary measurements. This technique provides a reliable means for estimating the polarization characteristics of any metal reflector, offering a valuable tool for polarization-sensitive experiments in optics and laser applications. Through experimental validation, the proposed