• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.147-156
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• 2023

Circularly polarized (CP) emission can be achieved by integrating emissive materials into chiral metasurfaces. Such CP light sources in integrated device platforms are desirable for important potential applications. However, the exact characterization of the polarization state in CP emission may include some errors because of the unwanted polarization distortion caused by optical components (e.g., beam splitter) in the optical setup. Here, we consider CP emission measurements from chiral metasurfaces and characterize the polarization distortion caused by the beam splitter. We first detail the procedures for the Stokes parameters and Mueller matrix measurements. Then, we directly measure the Mueller matrix of the beam splitter and retrieve the original polarization state of CP emission from our metasurface sample. Using the measured Mueller matrix of the beam splitter, we specifically identify what contributes to polarization distortion in CP emission. Our work may provide useful guidelines for the characterization and compensation of polarization distortion in general Stokes parameter measurements.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.474-481
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• 2018

We propose a polarization phase-shifting technique to investigate the thickness of $Ta_2O_5$ thin films deposited on BK7 substrates, using a modified Sagnac interferometer. Incident light is split by a polarizing beam splitter into two orthogonal linearly polarized beams traveling in opposite directions, and a quarter-wave plate is inserted into the common path to create an unbalanced phase condition. The linearly polarized light beams are transformed into two circularly polarized beams by transmission through a quarter-wave plate placed at the output of the interferometer. The proposed setup, therefore, yields rotating polarized light that can be used to extract a relative phase via the self-reference system. A thin-film sample inserted into the cyclic path modifies the output signal, in terms of the phase retardation. This technique utilizes three phase-shifted intensities to evaluate the phase retardation via simple signal processing, without manual adjustment of the output polarizer, which subsequently allows the thin film's thickness to be determined. Experimental results show that the thicknesses obtained from the proposed setup are in good agreement with those acquired by a field-emission scanning electron microscope and a spectroscopic ellipsometer. Thus, the proposed interferometric arrangement can be utilized reliably for non-contact thickness measurements of transparent thin films and characterization of optical devices.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.52.2-53
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• 2018

A stationary Type IV (IVs) radio burst was observed on September 24, 2011. Observations from the Nançay RadioHeliograph (NRH) show that the brightness temperature (TB ) of this burst is extremely high, over 10^11K at 150 MHz and over 10^8K in general. The degree of circular polarization (q ) is between -60%~-100%, which means that it is highly left-handed circularly polarized. The flux-frequency spectrum follows a power-law distribution, and the spectral index is considered to be roughly -3~-4 throughout the IVs. Radio sources of this event are located in the wake of the coronal mass ejection and are spatially dispersed. They line up to present a formation in which lower-frequency sources are higher. Based on these observations, it is suggested that the IVs was generated through electron cyclotron maser emission.