<title>Polarization Michelson interferometer: principles and applications</title>

Abstract

Applications of the polarization Michelson interferometer are reviewed. These include analog and binary polarization modulation, time shearing of a light pulse into a doublet of two separate pulses with orthogonal linear polarizations, creation of 'polarization-chirped' light pulses, generation of total and partial polarization states on and within the Poincare sphere, and measurement of the coherence and spectral properties of a quasimonochromatic light source.