Pupil polarimetry using stress-engineered optical elements

Stress-engineered optical elements show fascinating and potentially useful effects when placed at the pupil plane of an imaging system. When illuminated by a beam of spatially uniform polarization, a snapshot (single measurement) polarimetry method can be constructed. We expand upon this method to perform snapshot pupil polarimetry for spatially varying pupil polarization. We present the theory for snapshot non-uniform pupil polarization measurement using a stress-engineered optical element, as well as simulation results.