Error analysis and Stokes parameter measurement of rotating quarter-wave plate polarimeter

In this paper, we present a simple Stokes parameter measurement method for a rotating quarter-wave plate polarimeter. This method is used to construct a model to describe the principle of how the magnitudes of errors influence the deviation of the output light Stokes parameter, on the basis of accuracy analysis of the retardance error of the quarter-wave plate, the misalignment of the analyzing polarizer, and the phase shift of the measured signals, which will help us to determine the magnitudes of these errors and then to acquire the correct results of Stokes parameters. The method is validated by the experiments on left-handed circularly polarized and linear horizontal polarization beams. With the improved method, the maximum measurement deviations of Stokes parameters for these two different polarized states are reduced from 2.72% to 2.68%, and from 3.83% to 1.06% respectively. Our results demonstrate that the proposed method can be used as a promising approach to Stokes parameter measurement for a rotating quarter-wave plate polarimeter.

Stokes parameters of optical singularities of random electromagnetic beams

In this paper, the relation between the spectral degree of coherence and degree of polarization of random electromagnetic beams is derived by the Stokes parameters. And the concept of polarization singularity is extended from spatially fully coherent beams to partially coherent electromagnetic beams. Theoretical analysis shows that correlation vortices are linearly polarized singularities. The results are illustrated by numerical examples.

Experimental Measurement of the Generalized Stokes Parameters of a Radially Polarized Random Electromagnetic Beam

Utilizing the Young’s double slits and Mach-Zehnder interferometer, we proposed an experimental method to measure the generalized Stokes parameters of a radially polarized random electromagnetic beam. After the partially coherent beam propagating through the Young’s double slits, the interference fringe is obtained by the help of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer consisting of apertures, quarter-wave plates and polarizers. The electric cross-spectral density matrix is detected by the coherence degree of interference fringe and the density of each single slit. The generalized Stokes parameters can be obtained from the electric cross-spectral density matrix. This experiment measures the generalized Stokes parameters of the random electromagnetic beam successfully. The results show that the spectral degree of coherence for copolarized cases (xx and yy) is similar with that for cross-polaried cases (xy and yx) for the radially polarized random electromagnetic beam. This method will help us determine the change of the polarization and coherence of the light in propagation by detecting the change of the generalized Stokes parameters.

Statistical characteristics of the normalized Stokes parameters

The statistical properties of the normalized Stokes parameters in a Gaussian stochastic plane wave field are described in detail. Via the expression of the three normalized Stokes parameters, the mean, variance, and high-order moments are calculated, which simplify C. Brosseau＇s results. The new dispersion, normalized contrast function, skewness, and kurtosis are defined to describe the non-Gaussian distribution characteristics, which can be applied to Gaussian wave fields relating to depolarization of light by a spatially random medium.

Diabetes Type 2: Poincaré Data Preprocessing for Quantum Machine Learning

Quantum Machine Learning(QML)techniques have been recently attracting massive interest.However reported applications usually employ synthetic or well-known datasets.One of these techniques based on using a hybrid approach combining quantum and classic devices is the Variational Quantum Classifier(VQC),which development seems promising.Albeit being largely studied,VQC implementations for“real-world”datasets are still challenging on Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum devices(NISQ).In this paper we propose a preprocessing pipeline based on Stokes parameters for data mapping.This pipeline enhances the prediction rates when applying VQC techniques,improving the feasibility of solving classification problems using NISQ devices.By including feature selection techniques and geometrical transformations,enhanced quantum state preparation is achieved.Also,a representation based on the Stokes parameters in the PoincaréSphere is possible for visualizing the data.Our results show that by using the proposed techniques we improve the classification score for the incidence of acute comorbid diseases in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus patients.We used the implemented version of VQC available on IBM’s framework Qiskit,and obtained with two and three qubits an accuracy of 70%and 72%respectively.

Spatially modulated polarimetry based on a vortex retarder and Fourier analysis

We report a spatially modulated polarimetry scheme by using a zero-order vortex half-wave retarder(ZVHR)and a spatial Fourier analysis method.A ZVHR is employed to analyze the input polarized light and convert it into a vectorial optical field,and an analyzer is set after the ZVHR to form an hourglass intensity pattern due to the spatial polarization modulation.Then,the input light’s Stokes parameters can be calculated by spatial Fourier analysis of the hourglass pattern with a single shot.The working principle of the polarimeter has been analyzed by the Stokes-Mueller formalism,and some quantitative measuring experiments of different polarization states have been demonstrated.The experimental results indicate that the proposed polarimeter is accurate,robust,and simple to use.

Single-shot measurement of free-electron laser polarization at SDUV-FEL

In this paper, a division-of-amplitude photopolarimeter （DOAP） for measuring the polarization state of a free-electron laser （FEL） pulse is described. The incident FEL beam is divided into four separate beams, and four Stokes parameters can be measured in a single-shot. In the crossed-planar undulators experiment at the Shanghai deep ultraviolet FEL test facility, this DOAP instrument constructed in house responsed accurately and timely while the polarization-state of fully coherent FEL pulses were switched, which is helpful for confirming the crossed-planar undulators technique for short-wavelength FELs.