Measurement of optical rotation and depolarization using both linearly and circularly polarized lights

This paper presents a new technique using both linearly and circularly polarized lights with measured Stokes parameters for measuring the optical rotation of optical sample with depolarization effects under a linearly birefringent medium placed before the optical sample. For a half-wave plate sample in series with a quarter-wave plate, the average normalized error in the measured rotation angle of the half-wave plate is determined to be 0.01 % by a circularly polarized probe light, and the average surviving linear and circular polarization fractions of the half-wave plate are determined to be 1.0051 and 0.9994, respectively, with a standard deviation of 0.0022 and 0.0012, respectively. From the inspection of a half-wave plate followed by glucose solutions with concentrations ranging from 0̃1.2 g/dl, the average normalized error in the measured rotation angles of the glucose solutions is determined to be 3.11 % by a linearly polarized probe light. The average surviving linear and circular polarization fractions of the glucose solutions are determined to be 1.0252 and 0.9945, respectively, with a standard deviation of 0.0028 and 0.00005, respectively. Overall, the proposed technique for measuring the optical properties of the optical rotation and depolarization is proved to be feasible, and the preservation of circular polarization is successfully measured with good precision.