Tunable Transmissive Terahertz Linear Polarizer for Arbitrary Linear Incidence Based on Low-Dimensional Metamaterials

In this work, we propose a structure consisting of three metamaterial layers and a metallic grating layer to rotate the polarization of arbitrary linearly polarized incidence to the y-direction with high transmissivity by electrically tuning these metamaterials. The transfer matrix method together with a harmonic oscillator model is adopted to theoretically study the proposed structure. Numerical simulation based on the finite difference time-domain method is performed assuming that the metamaterial layers are constituted by graphene ribbon arrays. The calculation and simulation results show that the Drude absorption is responsible for the polarization rotation. Fermi level and scattering rate of graphene are important for the transmissivity. For a polarization rotation of around 90°, the thickness of either the upper or lower dielectric separations influences the transmission window. For a polarization rotation of around 45° and 135°, the lower dielectric separations decide the frequency of the transmission window, while the upper dielectric separations just slightly influence the transmissivity.

SOA-Based Multilevel Polarization Shift On–Off Keying Transmission for Free-Space Optical Communication

This paper proposes a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based multilevel polarization shift on–off keying (MPS-OOK) transmission for free-space optical (FSO) communication. At the transmitter end, the MPS-OOK signal is modulated with a constant linear state of polarization (SOP) at the high-intensity level and various SOPs at the low-intensity level in order to improve the spectral efficiency (SE) with the transmitted power efficiency. At the receiver end, first, a polarization-independent SOA was introduced to optically suppress the turbulence-induced scintillation effect and equalize the intensities of the various SOPs in the deep gain saturation state without polarization distortion. Then, a linear polarizer (LP) with a high extinction ratio (ER) was deployed to convert the equalized SOPs into a known intensity. Finally, the converted MPS-OOK signal was detected using a single photodiode (PD) and distinguished using a multilevel fixed-threshold decision (M-FTD). The proposed technique was evaluated using experiments. A Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM)-based fading simulator was introduced to emulate the turbulence-induced scintillation effect. The experimental results demonstrated that the scintillation effect was effectively mitigated and the SE was improved by up to 2 bit/s/Hz using the proposed four-level polarization shift on–off keying (4PS-OOK) transmission.

A Novel Skylight Orientation Sensor for Autonomous Navigation

<a></a>The angle of the polarization (AOP) and the degree of polarization (DOP) of the scattered skylight are symmetrically distributed concerning the solar meridian. Based on the symmetry of the skylight polarization distribution pattern, this paper proposes a novel skylight orientation sensor consists of a camera, an S-waveplate, and a linear polarizer. The skylight orientation sensor is using the image polarization encoding capability of the S-waveplate and the linear polarizer to convert the skylight polarization information into the image’s symmetry axis extraction, which has the advantages of no resolution loss and instantaneous field of view error. The symmetry axis in the image is consistent with the solar meridian. Therefore, the angle between the solar meridian and the skylight orientation sensor reference axis can be obtained without calculating the polarization information, which is also beneficial for real-time performance. The angle measurement accuracy and uncertainty of the skylight orientation sensor are verified by numerical simulation and outdoor experiments. The results demonstrate that the skylight orientation sensor has good application potential in autonomous navigation.

A Novel Skylight Orientation Sensor for Autonomous Navigation

<a></a>The angle of the polarization (AOP) and the degree of polarization (DOP) of the scattered skylight are symmetrically distributed concerning the solar meridian. Based on the symmetry of the skylight polarization distribution pattern, this paper proposes a novel skylight orientation sensor consists of a camera, an S-waveplate, and a linear polarizer. The skylight orientation sensor is using the image polarization encoding capability of the S-waveplate and the linear polarizer to convert the skylight polarization information into the image’s symmetry axis extraction, which has the advantages of no resolution loss and instantaneous field of view error. The symmetry axis in the image is consistent with the solar meridian. Therefore, the angle between the solar meridian and the skylight orientation sensor reference axis can be obtained without calculating the polarization information, which is also beneficial for real-time performance. The angle measurement accuracy and uncertainty of the skylight orientation sensor are verified by numerical simulation and outdoor experiments. The results demonstrate that the skylight orientation sensor has good application potential in autonomous navigation.

Experimental Mueller matrix polarimetry with full Poincaré beams and a CCD camera

Recently, the use of full Poincaré beams for extracting the Mueller matrix of a sample has been proposed. These beams present all possible polarization states across their transverse section. By placing a CCD camera behind a simple polarization analyzer formed by a quarter wave phase plate and a linear polarizer, a polarization map of the beam cross section can be obtained. This polarization map is modified when a sample is inserted before the polarization state analyzer. Comparison of these two polarization maps allows to obtain the Mueller matrix of the sample. An overdetermined system of linear equations (thousands of equations) can be written from this comparison. Standard mathematical methods are used to find optimum solution of this overdetermined system of equations. Some experimental results will be presented to check the performance of the proposed polarimetric method.