Measurement of circular and linear birefringence with rotating-wave-plate stokes polarimeter

In this study, a new technique is proposed for measuring the principal axis angle, retardance and rotation angle of optical samples. A rotating-wave-plate Stokes Polarimeter is used to extract the 2x2 central elements of the Mueller matrix of the sample via two probe lights linearly polarized at angles of 0 and 45 degrees, respectively. The validity of the method is demonstrated using a half-wave plate positioned in series with a quarter-wave plate, the measured values of the principal angle and retardance of the quarter-wave plate are found to have average normalized errors of 0.56 % and 1.16 % respectively, while the measured rotation angle of the half-wave plate has an error of just 0.39 %. When analyzing glucose solutions with concentrations ranging from 0 to 1.2 g/dl positioned in front of a half-wave plate, the average normalized errors in the principal axis angle and retardance measurements of the half-wave plate are 0.69 % and 2.65 % respectively, while the error in the rotation angle measurement of the glucose solutions is 2.13 %. Overall, the uncertainty analysis for the rotation angle measurement is simulated and experimental results demonstrate the ability of the proposed system to accurately measure the circular and linear birefringence.