Full characterization of dichroic samples from a single measurement by circular polarization orthogonality breaking

We report a novel method to unambiguously determine the magnitude and orientation of linear dichroism in a simultaneous way. It is based on the use of a dedicated dual-frequency dual-polarization coherent source providing two orthogonal circularly polarized modes at the output. We show that the interaction of such a beam with dichroic media gives rise to a beatnote signal whose amplitude and phase enable the full determination of the diattenuation coefficient and axis orientation, respectively. The application of this method to polarimetric imaging provides single-shot sample characterization by its diattenuation coefficient and optical axis angle, with potential applications in biomedical imaging. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America