Spatially resolved scattering polarimeter

We demonstrate a compact, spatially resolved polarimeter based on a coherent optical fiber bundle coupled with a thin layer of scattering centers. The use of scattering for polarization encoding allows the polarimeter to work across broad angular and spectral domains. Optical fiber bundles provide high spatial resolution of the incident field. Because neighboring elements of the bundle interact with the incident field differently, only a single interaction of the fiber bundle with the unknown field is needed to perform the measurement. Experimental results are shown to demonstrate the capability to perform imaging polarimetry. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America