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Merging Ion Concentration Polarization between Juxtaposed Ion Exchange Membranes to Block the Propagation of the Polarization Zone
Published on: February 23, 2017
Depolarization index and the average degree of polarization
1Optical Sciences Center, University of Arizona, 1630 East University Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA. russell.chipman@optics.arizona.edu
Abstract:
Two single number metrics for depolarization of samples are contrasted: (1) the average degree of polarization of the exiting light averaged over the Poincaré sphere and (2) the depolarization index of Gill and Berbenau [Opt. Acta 32, 259-261 (1985); 33, 185-189 (1986)1. The depolarization index is a geometric measure that varies from 0 for the ideal depolarizer to 1 for nondepolarizing Mueller matrices. The average degree of polarization also varies from 0 to 1 and characterizes the typical level of depolarization. Although the depolarization index is very often close to the average degree of polarization, these two metrics can differ by more than 0.5 for certain Mueller matrices.
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