MULTICHANNEL POLARIZATION STATE DETECTORS FOR TIME-RESOLVED ELLIPSOMETRY

A brief review is presented of recent developments in multichannel pho topolarimeters (MCPs) that use stationary arrangements of four (or mor e) photodetectors, with or without additional fixed polarizing optical elements, for the simultaneous and virtually instantaneous measuremen t of the four Stokes parameters of light. The absence of any moving pa rts and modulators makes possible time-resolved ellipsometry at the na nosecond-picosecond time scale and operation with pulsed light sources . Furthermore, grating-based division-of-amplitude MCPs can measure St okes parameter spectra in real time when used in conjunction with dete ctor arrays.