Abstract

While any 2D mixed state of polarization of light can be represented by a combination of a pure state and a fully random state, any Mueller matrix can be represented by a convex combination of a pure component and three additional components whose randomness is scaled in a proper and objective way. Such characteristic decomposition constitutes the appropriate framework for the characterization of the polarimetric randomness of the system represented by a given Mueller matrix and provides criteria for the optimal filtering of noise in experimental polarimetry.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

Serial–parallel decompositions of Mueller matrices

José J. Gil, Ignacio San José, and Razvigor Ossikovski
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 30(1) 32-50 (2013)

Polarimetric subtraction of Mueller matrices

José J. Gil and Ignacio San José
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 30(6) 1078-1088 (2013)

Characterization of passivity in Mueller matrices

Ignacio San José and José J. Gil
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 37(2) 199-208 (2020)

Singular Mueller matrices

José J. Gil, Razvigor Ossikovski, and Ignacio San José
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 33(4) 600-609 (2016)

Decomposition of a depolarizing Mueller matrix into its nondepolarizing components by using symmetry conditions

Ertan Kuntman and Oriol Arteaga
Appl. Opt. 55(10) 2543-2550 (2016)