Single-shot, simultaneous spatially resolved polarimetry and wavefront sensing with stress engineered optics

Abstract

We present an experimental test of the use of stress engineered optics incorporated into a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor in such a way that the shape of the point spread function (PSF) provides polarization information while the displacement of the PSF gives information about the local wavefront gradient, allowing a reconstruction of the wavefront gradient. Using calibrated polarizations and wavefront tilts we construct a measurement matrix capable of reconstructing both the Stokes parameters and the wavefront, yielding a measurement of wavefront gradients as small as 100 $\hat{I}¼$rad with a polarimetric angular error of approximately 0.1 radians on the Poincaré sphere in a single frame measurement.

30 pages, 17 figures, 1 table