Determination of polarization in optical instruments and its metrological implications.

One of the working programs of the CIE Technical Committee on Photometric and Radiometric Characteristics of Materials (CIE, TC-2.3) deals with polarization problems. The subcommittee working on this program is concerned with those topics of polarization that deal with the photometric and radiometric characteristics, particularly with instrumental polarization, which causes unpredictable variation in light transmitted, reflected, absorbed, or emitted-quantities all dependent on the sample type and measurement configurations. We present in this paper in summary form the results of some of the work that was reported at the Committee Meeting in London, England, in July 1973.