The method of measurement of light polarization state using the
general Malus law
Florian Ratajczyk, Władysław A. Woźniak, Piotr Kurzynowski Institute of Physics, Technical University of Wrocław, Poland
Abstract
For an unknown partially polarized light beam the following parameters should be determined: the intensity I, the azimuth angle a, the ellipticity angle J and the polarization degree p. These parameters could be determined directly (using well known compensating methods) or calculated from measured components I, M, C, S of the Stokes vector of the examined light. The method described in this paper is based on determination of the components of the Stokes vector of examined light by measuring only the intensities of this light after passing through several different real analysers. The method proposed below is also most useful for automatization of measurement process, in regard of measuring only the light intensity ratios.