Utilizing a Cornu depolarizer in the generation of spatially unpolarized light

摘要

In this paper, we investigate depolarization properties of a quartz double-wedge Cornu depolarizer with respect to the generation of spatially unpolarized light in terms of on-average randomly occupied states on the Poincare sphere. Spatially resolved Stokes parameter measurements yield transformed polarization states and polarization-dispersed characteristic fringes for the Stokes parameters. Their spatial symmetry, the degree of polarization, and spatially integrated Stokes parameters as a function of the aperture-determined input diameter together with a Mueller matrix calculus model confirm the successful generation of equator states incorporating the ensemble of all purely linearly polarized states, thus on spatial average representing unpolarized light. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America