Optical Transfer Function for Imaging Systems Which Change the State of Light Polarization

The problem of incoherent imaging of extended objects by optical systems which change the state of light polarization is discussed in detail. The optical transfer function of the system has been determined for two cases, i.e. for objects which emit similarly and differently polarized light. For the second case it was necessary to introduce the vectorial optical transfer function (OTF). Numerical calculations of the OTF have been performed for a perfect system with a simple polarizing mask in the exit pupil.