Characterization on all effective parameters of anisotropic optical material using Stokes polarimeter — Theory and experiment

An analytical technique based on the Mueller matrix method and the Stokes parameters is proposed for extracting all effective parameters on the principal axis angle, phase retardance, diattenuation axis angle, diattenuation, optical rotation angle and circular diattenuation value of anisotropic optical materials. The linear birefringence, circular birefringence, linear diattenuation, circular diattenuation properties are decoupled within the analytical model. The result demonstrates the feasibility of analytical model in characterizing all effective parameters of anisotropic optical material. Also, it confirms that the proposed fiber-based polarimeter provides a simple alternative to existing fiber-based probes for parameter measurement in the near field or the remote environment. A low birefringence fiber-based polarimeter based on effective parameters and genetic algorithm without using a fiber polarization controller is first proposed confirmatively. As authors' knowledge, this methodology is introduced in this paper cou ld be the most comprehensive algorithm in extracting all parameters in anisotropic optical materials.