Polarization imaging light scattering facility

Understanding the interaction of polarized light with materials is critical to applications such as remote sensing, laser radar, and quality control. The availability of angular and spatial information add additional dimensions to this understanding. A facility is constructed for Mueller Matrix Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution (MMBRDF) imaging. Polarized light at near infrared and visible wavelengths is scattered from samples ranging from bare metals to complex organic structures with various textures and orientations. The resulting scattered polarized light is measured with a Mueller matrix active imaging polarimeter. The in-plane MMBRDF is measured for a sanded aluminum sample as a demonstration of the facility. The aluminum is found to be a weak depolarizer, with a somewhat higher depolarization index at specular angles. Retardance is dominated by its linear component and is close to 180° for the majority of angles. Diattenuation is weak, especially in the specular region, and increases in the region further away from specular angles.