title: Polarization state generator: a polarimeter calibration standard.
abstract: A polarization state generator (PSG) was built to generate light having a degree of linear polarization (DoLP) varying from 0.0005 to 0.4 with 0.0005 uncertainty. The PSG operates by tilting a plane parallel SF11 glass plate in a nearly unpolarized beam. The DoLP of collimated, unpolarized light passing through a plane parallel plate over a defined range of field angles can be calculated from theory, and the PSG was intended to act as a calibration standard based on this calculation. Several effects make the DoLP distribution as a function of field and tilt plate difficult to model to the desired 0.0005 uncertainty: source DoLP and intensity nonuniformity, lens surface diattenuation, and errors in optical alignment. Because of these effects, modeled DoLP was not used as a standard. Instead, DoLP was characterized with repeatability of 0.0005.
authors.affiliation: College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona, 1630 East University Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA. mahler@email.arizona.edu
authors.forename: Anna-Britt
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Mahler
authors.forename: Russell A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Chipman