title: Longitudinal polarization periodicity of unpolarized light passing through a double wedge depolarizer.
abstract: The polarization characteristics of unpolarized light passing through a double wedge depolarizer are studied. It is found that the degree of polarization of the radiation propagating after the depolarizer is uniform across transverse planes after the depolarizer, but it changes from one plane to another in a periodic way giving, at different distances, unpolarized, partially polarized, or even perfectly polarized light. An experiment is performed to confirm this result. Measured values of the Stokes parameters and of the degree of polarization are in complete agreement with the theoretical predictions.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Circuitos y Sistemas, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28031 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan Carlos G
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: de Sande
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santarsiero
authors.forename: Gemma
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piquero
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gori
mesh_terms: D007909:Lenses; D008027:Light; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation*