Utilizing a Cornu depolarizer in the generation of spatially unpolarized light.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate depolarization properties of a quartz double-wedge Cornu depolarizer with respect to the generation of spatially unpolarized light in terms of on-average randomly occupied states on the Poincaré sphere. Spatially resolved Stokes parameter measurements yield transformed polarization states and polarization-dispersed characteristic fringes for the Stokes parameters. Their spatial symmetry, the degree of polarization, and spatially integrated Stokes parameters as a function of the aperture-determined input diameter together with a Mueller matrix calculus model confirm the successful generation of equator states incorporating the ensemble of all purely linearly polarized states, thus on spatial average representing unpolarized light.