Mueller matrix microscopic polarimetry of anisotropic samples.

Abstract

The submitted thesis is focused on Mueller matrix microscopic polarimetry as an instrument for the characterization of anisotropic samples. After the analysis of the optical path in Ansys Zemax OpticStudio, a description of the main components of the experimental setup is presented. More detailed characterization of liquid crystal variable retarders was performed on the spectroscopic ellipsometer. For the system’s calibration, the eigenvalue calibration method was chosen, with polarizer and retarder as the calibration samples. These were characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry and UV-VIS spectroscopy. Calibration was performed using a written Matlab script. After that, models of back focal plane imaging of soda lime glass, rutile, and copper sulfate pentahydrate are presented.