Simultaneous measurement of phase transmission and linear or circular dichroism of an object under test.

This publication presents a novel interferometric method for the simultaneous spatially resolved analysis of an object under test regarding the phase transmission function and the magnitude and orientation of dichroism. Analogous to the classical phase-shifting interferometry, the measurement strategy is based on the variation of phase and polarization in an interferometer. This procedure allows one to analyze simultaneously and spatially resolved the dichroic properties of the object and its impact on the phase of the incoming light in one measurement cycle. The theoretical description of the investigated methods and their experimental implementation are presented.

Simultaneous measurement of phase transmission and birefringence of an object under test.

This paper presents a novel interferometric method for the simultaneous spatially resolved analysis of an object under test regarding the phase transmission function and the magnitude and orientation of the (uniaxial) birefringence. The measurement strategy is based on variations of the phase and polarization and processing the interference patterns so obtained. With this method, which is very similar to the classical phase-shifting interferometry, a complete analysis of birefringent properties of the object and its impact on the phase of the incoming light can be done in one measurement cycle. The theoretical description of the investigated methods and their experimental implementation are presented.

Lateral spin transport in paraxial beams of light.

We investigate the lateral transport of (longitudinal) spin angular momentum in a special polarization tailored light beam composed of a superposition of a y-polarized zero-order and an x-polarized first-order Hermite-Gaussian mode. This phenomenon is linked to the relative Gouy phase shift between the individual modes upon propagation, but can also be interpreted as a geometric phase effect. Experimentally, we demonstrate the implementation of such a mode and measure the spin density upon propagation.

Measuring the modulus of the spatial coherence function using an error tolerant phase shifting algorithm and a continuous lateral shearing interferometer.

The modulus of the degree of coherence can be derived from interference patterns either by using fringes and next neighbour operations or by using several interferograms produced through phase shifting. Here the latter approach will be followed by using a lateral shearing interferometer exploiting a diffractive grating wedge providing a linearly progressive shear. Phase shifting methods offer pixel-oriented evaluations but suffer from instabilities and drifts which is the reason for the derivation of an error immune algorithm. This algorithm will use five π/2-steps of the reference phase also for the calculation of the modulus of the coherence function.

Simultaneous measurement of phase and local orientation of linearly polarized light: implementation and measurement results.

Optical components manipulating both polarization and phase of wave fields find many applications in today's optical systems. With modern lithography methods it is possible to fabricate optical elements with nanostructured surfaces from different materials capable of generating spatially varying, locally linearly polarized-light distributions, tailored to the application in question. Since such elements in general also affect the phase of the light field, the characterization of the function of such elements consists in measuring the phase and the polarization of the generated light, preferably at the same time. Here, we will present first results of an interferometric approach for a simultaneous and spatially resolved measurement of both phase and polarization, as long as the local polarization at any point is linear (e.g., for radially or azimuthally polarized light).