Channeled spatio-temporal Stokes polarimeters

We present the analysis and design of spatio-temporal channeled Stokes polarimeters. We extend our recent work on optimal pixelated polarizer arrays by utilizing temporal carrier generation, resulting in polarimeters that achieve super-resolution via the tradeoff between spatial bandwidth and temporal bandwidth. Utilizing the channel space description, we present a linear-Stokes design and two full-Stokes imaging polarimeter designs that have the potential to operate at the full frame rate of the imaging sensor of the system by using hybrid spatio-temporal carriers. If the objects are not spatially bandlimited, the achievable temporal bandwidth is more difficult to analyze; however, a spatio-temporal tradeoff still exists. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America