A fast Stokes polarimeter

Abstract

Designing polarimetric systems directly in the channel space has provided insight into how to design new types of polarimetric systems, including systems which use carriers in hybrid domains of space, time, or spectrum. Utilizing linear systems theory, we present a full Stokes imaging polarimeter design which has the potential to operate at half the frame rate of the imaging sensor of the system by utilizing a hybrid spatio-Temporal carrier design. The design places channels on the faces and the edges of the Nyquist cube resulting in the potential for half the Nyquist limit to be achieved, provided that the spatial frequency of the objects being imaged are bandlimited to less than 0.25 cycles per pixel. If the objects are not spatially bandlimited, then the achievable temporal bandwidth is more difficult to analyze. However, a spatio-Temporal tradeoff still exists allowing for increased temporal bandwidth. We present the design of a "Fast Stokes'' polarimeter and some simulated images using this design. Show more