Ptychographic Mueller matrix imaging: in-situ system calibration and evaluation

Area of Science:

• Optical Physics
• Nanotechnology
• Metrology

Background:

• Accurate polarimetric systems are essential for advanced imaging.
• Ptychographic Mueller matrix imaging (PMMI) offers high-resolution polarimetric measurements.
• In-situ calibration is vital for compensating system imperfections.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a hybrid in-situ calibration strategy for PMMI systems.
• To enhance the accuracy, precision, and repeatability of Mueller matrix measurements.
• To establish PMMI as a robust tool for nanomaterial characterization.

Main Methods:

• Hybrid calibration combining eigenvalue decomposition and model-based procedures.
• In-situ calibration within the operational configuration of the PMMI system.
• Experimental validation using a home-built PMMI prototype and a USAF-1951 resolution target.

Main Results:

• Achieved measurement accuracy of 0.01 and precision of 0.005 for imaging Mueller matrices.
• Demonstrated measurement repeatability of 0.005.
• Successfully compensated for polarization component imperfections and mounting errors.

Conclusions:

• The proposed hybrid in-situ calibration strategy significantly improves PMMI system performance.
• The calibrated PMMI system is a powerful and quantitative tool for nanomaterial and nanostructure characterization.
• This work advances the field of polarimetric imaging and metrology.