A method for fast and robustly measuring the state of polarization of arbitrary light beams based on Pancharatnam-Berry phase

We present a newly improved approach for fast measuring the state of polarization (SOP) of arbitrary beams based on the Pancharatnam-Berry phase theory. Only a single exposure of the hologram, which is formed by the interference of a reference beam and the two separated orthogonal circular components of object beam, is needed. By numerically reconstructing the complex amplitudes from the hologram, the SOP of the object beam can be further calculated out. Moreover, this method eliminates the influence of the variation of intensity distribution and polarization of the reference beam, which makes it easy for the interference adjustment and more robust. The quantitative measurements are experimentally performed to prove the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed method. The measurement system has potential applications in measuring dynamic nonuniform polarization transformations of elements or systems in real time. Published under license by AIP Publishing.