Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Automation of Mode Locking in a Nonlinear Polarization Rotation Fiber Laser through Output Polarization Measurements
Published on: February 28, 2016
Stokes polarimeter optimization in the presence of shot and Gaussian noise
1The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, SW7 2BW, UK. d.lara@imperial.ac.uk
Abstract:
An error minimization method is presented for Stokes polarimeters applicable when the detected signals are affected by a combination of shot and Gaussian noise. The expectation of the Stokes vector variance is used as a performance measure. This measure is compared with the condition number of a polarization state analyzer matrix that is commonly used as a figure of merit. We show that a polarimeter with the minimum condition number is not necessarily optimal. The approach is used to optimize existing prism based polarimeters giving improvements in the performance when shot-noise cannot be neglected.
Related Concept Videos
Stokes' Law
The expression for the force on a solid spherical object in a fluid is called Stokes' law. Stokes' law is valid only for low Reynolds...
Stokes’ Theorem and Its Applications
Divergence and Stokes' Theorems
Potential Due to a Polarized Object
Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution: Problem Solving
This distribution function f(v) is defined by saying that the expected number N (v1,v2) of particles with speeds between v1 and v2 is given by
NMR Spectrometers: Resolution and Error Correction

