ANALYSIS OF DEPOLARIZING OPTICAL TARGETS BY MUELLER MATRIX FORMALISM

The polarizing and depolarizing properties of an optical system can be derived from the experimental determination of its Mueller matrix. Co nstructing an algorithm to treat an experimental Mueller matrix based on the knowledge of the measurement errors, and connected to the study of the depolarization effects in the Poincare space, allows us to cha racterize and classify any optical system. Different samples of materi als and surfaces are analysed by this method while polarimetric image coding provides the spatial distribution of the depolarization for eac h target.