Spectralon spatial depolarization: towards an intrinsic characterization using a novel phase shift distribution analysis.

Spectralons are reference radiometric samples which exhibit a calibrated reflectance. However, in case of low reflectance samples, the degree of polarization (DOP) of scattered light is hard to characterize. Here, an accurate determination of spectralon spatial depolarization is proposed. Based on a spatially resolved polarimetric imaging system, the polarization state of the scattered light is characterized for every pixel. A statistic distribution analysis is carried out over the entire image. The relative phase shift distribution between two orthogonal components of the scattered electric field clearly exhibits a high sensitivity to the reflectance, the phase statistics following a circular Voigt profile. The intrinsic part of the spatial depolarization is demonstrated to be linked to the circular Cauchy contribution of that phase dispersion. An analytic equation is proposed to estimate the monochromatic spatially integrated DOP, as a function of the reflectance. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America