• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.262-272
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• 2014

Using an ellipsometer with dual rotating quarter-wave plates, we have analyzed the relationship between Fourier coefficients and Mueller matrices in the cases of an error-free optical system and of five systematic errors (alignment errors and retardation errors in the quarter-wave plates, and alignment error in the analyzer). In the case with five systematic errors, simulation results show that retardation errors cause more error in the diagonal elements of the Mueller matrix than do alignment errors. We have found that errors in the Mueller matrix caused by initial misalignment of the dual quarter-wave plates were the same. We have chosen the rotation rates of two quarter-wave plates such that the rotational frequencies ${\omega}_1$ and ${\omega}_2$ differ by a factor of 5, i.e. ${\omega}_2=5{\omega}_1$. The simulation results show 0.18% relative error in the diagonal elements ($m_{22}$ and $m_{33}$) and 200% relative error in the off-diagonal elements ($m_{23}$ and $m_{32}$), when we compare errors caused by misalignment of the analyzer to those caused by initial misalignment of the quarter-wave plates. We can use these results in measuring accurate Mueller matrices of optical materials.