title: Complete Stokes polarimetry of magneto-optical Faraday effect in a terbium gallium garnet crystal at cryogenic temperatures.
abstract: We report the complete determination of the polarization changes caused in linearly polarized incident light due to propagation in a magneto-optically active terbium gallium garnet (TGG) single crystal, at temperatures ranging from 6.3 to 300 K. A 28-fold increase in the Verdet constant of the TGG crystal is seen as its temperature decreases to 6.3 K. In contrast with polarimetry of light emerging from a Faraday material at room temperature, polarimetry at cryogenic temperatures cannot be carried out using the conventional fixed polarizer-analyzer technique because the assumption that ellipticity is negligible becomes increasingly invalid as temperature is lowered. It is shown that complete determination of light polarization in such a case requires the determination of its Stokes parameters, otherwise inaccurate measurements will result with negative implications for practical devices.
authors.forename: Hassaan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Majeed
authors.forename: Amrozia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shaheen
authors.forename: Muhammad Sabieh
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Anwar