No description available.

[Truncated abstract.] An apparatus has been built, tested and characterised with greatly increased precision and accuracy to enable spin-polarised electron impact explorations of angular momentum effects in atoms. A combination of experimental, computational and interpretative studies has revealed new phenomena. In zinc the polarisation of the radiated photons from excited and ionised-with-excited atoms was measured in terms of integrated Stokes parameters (P1, P2 and P3) and related to electron exchange and spin-orbit interaction using normalised state multipoles.

No description available.

Estimation of Stokes vector components from an interferometric fringe encoded image is a novel way of measuring the State Of Polarization (SOP) distribution across a scene. Imaging polarimeters employing interferometric techniques encode SOP information in a single image in the form of fringes. The lack of moving parts and the use of a single image eliminates the problems of conventional polarimetry - vibration, spurious signal generation due to artifacts, beam wander and the need for registration routines. However, interferometric polarimeters are limited by narrow band pass operation and short exposure time operations which decrease the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) in the detected image.A simulation environment for designing an Interferometric Stokes Imaging polarimeter (ISIP) and a detector with noise effects is created and presented. A user is capable of imaging an object with defined SOP through an ISIP on to a detector producing a digitized image output. The simulation also includes band pass imaging capabilities, control of detector noise, and object brightness levels.The Stokes images are estimated from a fringe encoded image of a scene by means of a reconstructor algorithm. A spatial domain methodology involving the idea of a unit cell and slide approach is applied to the reconstructor model developed using Mueller calculus. The validation of this methodology and effectiveness compared to a discrete approach is demonstrated with suitable examples. The pixel size required to sample the fringes and the minimum unit cell size required for reconstruction are investigated using condition numbers. The importance of the PSF of fore-optics (telescope) used in imaging the object is investigated and analyzed using a point source imaging example and a Nyquist criteria is presented.Reconstruction of fringe modulated images in the presence of noise involves choosing an optimal sized unitcell. The choice of the unit cell based on the size of the polarization domain and illumination level is analyzed using a bias-variance tradeoff to obtain the minimum root mean square error. A similar tradeoff study is used to analyze the choice of the band pass filters under various illumination levels. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of the ISIP is presented to explore the applicability of this device to detect low degrees of polarization in areas like remote sensing.

Diploma thesis deals with polarization properties of an optical beam and the determination of its polarization state by means of the proposed automatic measurement method. Furthermore the influence of an environment on the polarization state of the optical wave is studied. At the beginning of this thesis the fundamental terms with respect to the wave polarization including the description of the polarization devices are presented. In conclusion a method for an automated experimental workplace for the measurement of the polarization properties using Poincare sphere and Stokes parameters is designed and verified.

[pt] O presente trabalho tem como objetivo a realização de um transmissor experimental para comunicações ópticas baseado na modulação por chaveamento de polarização da luz, conhecida como Polarization Shift Keying (PolSK). Realizamos análise teórica das vantagens e desvantagens da modulação PolSK frente aos requisitos de desempenho das comunicações ópticas atuais, entre os quais a eficiência espectral, o consumo de energia e roteamento totalmente óptico em redes transparentes. A principal abordagem da dissertação está relacionada ao ganho em eficiência espectral que pode ser alcançado com o uso de constelações de símbolos num espaço dimensional denominado espaço de Stokes. Dados obtidos de um transmissor experimental de baixa velocidade demonstram a geração de constelações de símbolos tridimensionais contendo oito símbolos numa geometria de hexaedro (cubo). Com base nos conceitos teóricos, o arranjo experimental que construímos pode ser reproduzido para funcionar em velocidades compatíveis com as taxas de transmissão das comunicações ópticas atuais. / [en] The present work aims the experimental realization of an optical transmitter based on the Polarization Shift Keying modulation - known as (PolSK). We analyze theoretically both, advantages and disadvantages of PolSK modulation, emergent performance requirements for current optical communications systems, including spectral efficiency, power consumption and routing in the context of transparent all-optical networks. The main approach of the dissertation is related to the spectral efficiency gain that can be achieved when we use constellations of symbols in a dimensional space called Stokes space. Data from a low speed experimental transmitter demonstrate the generation of three-dimensional constellations of symbols containing eight symbols on hexahedron (cube) geometry. Based on the theoretical concepts we built the experiment, the setup can be replicated to operate at speeds compatible with transmission rates of current optical communications systems.

No description available.

Three problems at the forefront of microwave radiometry are solved using probability theory and inverse problem formulations which are heavily based in probability theory. Probability theory is able to capture information about random phenomena, while inverse problem theory processes that information. The use of these theories results in more accurate estimates and assessments of estimate error than is possible with previous, non-probabilistic approaches. The benefits of probabilistic approaches are expounded and demonstrated. The first problem to be solved is a derivation of the error that remains after using a method which corrects radiometric measurements for polarization rotation. Yueh [1] proposed a method of using the third Stokes parameter TU to correct brightness temperatures such as Tv and Th for polarization rotation. This work presents an extended error analysis of Yueh's method. In order to carry out the analysis, a forward model of polarization rotation is developed which accounts for the random nature of thermal radiation, receiver noise, and (to first order) calibration. Analytic formulas are then derived and validated for bias, variance, and root-mean-square error (RMSE) as functions of scene and radiometer parameters. Examination of the formulas reveals that: 1) natural TU from planetary surface radiation, of the magnitude expected on Earth at L-band, has a negligible effect on correction for polarization rotation; 2) RMSE is a function of rotation angle Ω, but the value of Ω which minimizes RMSE is not known prior to instrument fabrication; and 3) if residual calibration errors can be sufficiently reduced via postlaunch calibration, then Yueh's method reduces the error incurred by polarization rotation to negligibility. The second problem addressed in this dissertation is optimal estimation of calibration parameters in microwave radiometers. Algebraic methods for internal calibration of a certain class of polarimetric microwave radiometers are presented by Piepmeier [2]. This dissertation demonstrates that Bayesian estimation of the calibration parameters decreases the RMSE of the estimates by a factor of two as compared with algebraic estimation. This improvement is obtained by using knowledge of the noise structure of the measurements and by utilizing all of the information provided by the measurements. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that much significant information is contained in the covariance information between the calibration parameters. This information can be preserved and conveyed by reporting a multidimensional pdf for the parameters rather than merely the means and variances of those parameters. The proposed method is also extended to estimate several hardware parameters of interest in system calibration. The final portion of this dissertation demonstrates the advantages of a probabilistic approach in an empirical situation. A recent inverse problem formulation, sketched in [3], is founded on probability theory and is sufficiently general that it can be applied in empirical situations. This dissertation applies that formulation to the retrieval of Antarctic air temperature from satellite measurements of microwave brightness temperature. The new method is contrasted with the curve-fitting approach which is the previous state-of-the-art. The adaptibility of the new method not only results in improved estimation but is also capable of producing useful estimates of air temperature in areas where the previous method fails due to the occurence of melt events.

<p>Polarisation, which was first studied in optics, is a fundamental property of all electromagnetic fields. A convenient way to describe the polarisation of two dimensional electromagnetic fields is given by the Stokes parameters. This thesis deals with different aspects of wave polarisation and electromagnetic field measurements. A generalisation of the Stokes parameters to three dimensions is presented. The theory has been used to develop methods and systems for obtaining the polarisation parameters of electromagnetic waves. The methods can be applied for a wide range of electromagnetic fields, measured both on ground and onboard satellites. The applications include, e.g., direction-finding, polarisation analysis, radar, and several examples in the field of wireless communication. Further applications are given in the analysis of satellite data, where a whistler wave is considered. Whistlers are circularly polarised electromagnetic waves propagating in the magnetosphere along the geomagnetic field. Dispersion in the magnetospheric plasma make the whistler frequencies travel at different speeds and the signal takes the form of a chirp. From instantaneous polarisation analysis of the whistler´s magnetic wave field, the normal to the polarisation plane is obtained and found to precess around the geomagnetic field. A statistic analysis of ionospheric stimulated electromagnetic emissions (SEE) is also presented. SEE is generated by injecting a powerful high frequency radio wave into the ionosphere. It is shown that the SEE features have a statistical behaviour indistinguishable from the amplitude and phase distributions of narrow-band Gaussian noise. The results suggests that SEE cannot be explained by simple coherent processes alone. Finally, an expression for the complex Poynting theorem is derived for the general case of anharmonic fields. It is found that the complex Poynting theorem, for real fields and sources, is not a conservation law of the imaginary part of electromagnetic energy.</p>

Polarisation, which was first studied in optics, is a fundamental property of all electromagnetic fields. A convenient way to describe the polarisation of two dimensional electromagnetic fields is given by the Stokes parameters. This thesis deals with different aspects of wave polarisation and electromagnetic field measurements. A generalisation of the Stokes parameters to three dimensions is presented. The theory has been used to develop methods and systems for obtaining the polarisation parameters of electromagnetic waves. The methods can be applied for a wide range of electromagnetic fields, measured both on ground and onboard satellites. The applications include, e.g., direction-finding, polarisation analysis, radar, and several examples in the field of wireless communication. Further applications are given in the analysis of satellite data, where a whistler wave is considered. Whistlers are circularly polarised electromagnetic waves propagating in the magnetosphere along the geomagnetic field. Dispersion in the magnetospheric plasma make the whistler frequencies travel at different speeds and the signal takes the form of a chirp. From instantaneous polarisation analysis of the whistler´s magnetic wave field, the normal to the polarisation plane is obtained and found to precess around the geomagnetic field. A statistic analysis of ionospheric stimulated electromagnetic emissions (SEE) is also presented. SEE is generated by injecting a powerful high frequency radio wave into the ionosphere. It is shown that the SEE features have a statistical behaviour indistinguishable from the amplitude and phase distributions of narrow-band Gaussian noise. The results suggests that SEE cannot be explained by simple coherent processes alone. Finally, an expression for the complex Poynting theorem is derived for the general case of anharmonic fields. It is found that the complex Poynting theorem, for real fields and sources, is not a conservation law of the imaginary part of electromagnetic energy.