Polarization Aberrations in High-Numerical-Aperture Lens Systems and Their Effects on Vectorial-Information Sensing

Yuanxing Shen; Binguo Chen; Chao He; Honghui He; Jun Guo; Jian Wu; Daniel S. Elson; Hui Ma

doi:10.3390/rs14081932

Remote Sensing (Apr 2022)

Polarization Aberrations in High-Numerical-Aperture Lens Systems and Their Effects on Vectorial-Information Sensing

Yuanxing Shen,
Binguo Chen,
Chao He,
Honghui He,
Jun Guo,
Jian Wu,
Daniel S. Elson,
Hui Ma

Affiliations

Yuanxing Shen: Guangdong Research Center of Polarization Imaging and Measurement Engineering Technology, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Minimal Invasive Medical Technologies, Institute of Optical Imaging and Sensing, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Binguo Chen: Guangdong Research Center of Polarization Imaging and Measurement Engineering Technology, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Minimal Invasive Medical Technologies, Institute of Optical Imaging and Sensing, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Chao He: Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UK
Honghui He: Guangdong Research Center of Polarization Imaging and Measurement Engineering Technology, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Minimal Invasive Medical Technologies, Institute of Optical Imaging and Sensing, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Jun Guo: Guangdong Research Center of Polarization Imaging and Measurement Engineering Technology, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Minimal Invasive Medical Technologies, Institute of Optical Imaging and Sensing, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Jian Wu: Institute of Biopharmaceutical and Health Engineering, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Daniel S. Elson: Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Hui Ma: Guangdong Research Center of Polarization Imaging and Measurement Engineering Technology, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Minimal Invasive Medical Technologies, Institute of Optical Imaging and Sensing, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14081932
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 14, no. 8
p. 1932

Abstract

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The importance of polarization aberrations has been recognized and studied in numerous optical systems and related applications. It is known that polarization aberrations are particularly crucial in certain photogrammetry and microscopy techniques that are related to vectorial information—such as polarization imaging, stimulated emission depletion microscopy, and structured illumination microscopy. Hence, a reduction in polarization aberrations would be beneficial to different types of optical imaging/sensing techniques with enhanced vectorial information. In this work, we first analyzed the intrinsic polarization aberrations induced by a high-NA lens theoretically and experimentally. The aberrations of depolarization, diattenuation, and linear retardance were studied in detail using the Mueller matrix polar-decomposition method. Based on an analysis of the results, we proposed strategies to compensate the polarization aberrations induced by high-NA lenses for hardware-based solutions. The preliminary imaging results obtained using a Mueller matrix polarimeter equipped with multiple coated aspheric lenses for polarization-aberration reduction confirmed that the conclusions and strategies proposed in this study had the potential to provide more precise polarization information of the targets for applications spanning across classical optics, remote sensing, biomedical imaging, photogrammetry, and vectorial optical-information extraction.

Published in Remote Sensing

ISSN: 2072-4292 (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Science
Website: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/

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