title: Control and measurement of spatially inhomogeneous polarization distributions in third-harmonic generation microscopy.
abstract: We demonstrate in situ characterization of a spatially varying polarization state of an optical field at the focus of a scanning third-harmonic generation (THG) optical microscope. Polarization projections are measured by forming THG images of a polystyrene microsphere scanned through the focused beam and combined in a noniterative phase-retrieval algorithm. Controlled spatially varying polarization states are introduced by imaging spatially inhomogeneous polarization distributions constructed with reflective spatial light modulator to the focal plane of a microscope objective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Masihzadeh
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schlup
authors.forename: Randy A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Bartels