View Spotlight analysis of the #OPG_JOSA_A paper Wave description of geometric phase https://t.co/Pyqqs8G7P6 Spotlight Summary by Oriol Arteaga #Polarization pic.twitter.com/xor2D2qnV3

— Optica Publishing Group (@OpticaPubsGroup) March 13, 2023

From the same authors, it is also very recommendable this article: https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04359 which I think will be soon published in Optica.

Research in Catalan Universities is organized through Research Groups recognized by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR). In the last call, I led the application for a new emergent research group called “Polarized light Applications & Technologies (PLAT)”, which was granted. 

I made a preliminary (under-construction) website of the group at: www.ub.edu/plat

However, this (www.mmpolarimetry.com) personal website will of course continue to exist, as it already has a long history, offers more personal views on research topics, and is easier to update.

Here I share some historical papers/documents/books about polarization optics that are very hard to find and that I consider important or very nice.

Soleillet Thesis (1929) [First description of Stokes-Mueller calculus]

https://www.mmpolarimetry.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/SoleilletThesis.pdf

Perrin 1942 (English translation) [First work describing Mueller matrix symmetries]

https://www.mmpolarimetry.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/perrin1942.pdf

Mueller 1943 (Memorandum on the polarization optics of the photoelastic shutter] [The most relevant available work by Hans Mueller]

https://www.mmpolarimetry.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mueller1943_OEMsr-576_Memorandum-on-the-polarization-optics-of-the-photoelastic-shutter.pdf

Walker 1904, The analytical theory of light [book] [The only English book that described Stokes parameters way before they were rediscovered]

https://www.mmpolarimetry.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/The_analytical_theory_of_light_IA_analyticaltheory00walkrich.pdf

Many months without updates. So this is a summary of the latest news (without following any particular order)

New Book Chapter

Arteaga, O., Ossikovski, R. (2023). Mueller Matrix Analysis, Decompositions, and Novel Quantitative Approaches to Processing Complex Polarimetric Data. In: Ramella-Roman, J.C., Novikova, T. (eds) Polarized Light in Biomedical Imaging and Sensing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04741-1_2

New Optics letter paper about spatial dispersion selected as an editor’s pick

Razvigor Ossikovski and Oriol Arteaga, “Optical response of media and structures exhibiting spatial dispersion,” Opt. Lett. 47, 5602-5605 (2022)

(more research on this topic will follow)

2022 Horizon Award from Royal Society

I participated in the large international team of scientists that developed chiral organics for photon/electron spin control. 

• Link to Royal Society 
• Press release from UB

New projects starting!

Two new projects funded by Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades,  will start very soon. 

• “Microscopio de matriz de Mueller” (PDC2022-133625-I00).
• “Caracterización óptica de células solares altamente texturizadas para optimizar su eficiencia” (TED2021-129639B-I00).

Funding opportunities for interested students may be possible (contact me).

Listed in the “Stanford list”

For a second consecutive year, I have been listed in the list of the top 2% of most influential researchers in their field. The database gathers the leading scientists in different disciplines and is made from the information provided by the Scopus database.

Press release from UB

I share here the slides of the keynote presentation I prepared for the 9th International Conference on Spectroscopic Ellipsometry ICSE-9.

Title: Exploring the sensitivity limits of a Mueller matrix ellipsometer. The spatial dispersion of Si

I have been appointed as Topical Editor in Applied Optics in the areas of Polarization, Polarimetry, Ellipsometry, and Polarimetric Imaging. Applied Optics, from Optica Publishing Group (formerly Optical Society of America), is my top preferred journal for applications-centered research in optics, and I have published there many articles. I hope I will receive many interesting submissions related to these topics and, therefore, I also encourage researchers working on polarization, polarimetry and ellipsometry to consider Applied Optics as a suitable journal for their best works.

The purpose of this post is to provide some interesting documents related to the history of ellipsometry. It is sometimes considered that Paul Drude was the “inventor” of ellipsometry. Despite the many contributions of P. Drude, in my opinion this statement is not true and, as almost all aspects and techniques related with the polarization of light, ellipsometry was invented in France, as early as mid XIXth century. It is however true, that at that time the influence of thin films on ellipsometry measurements was still not discovered or understood (althought the associated ellipticity was already measured), so the technique was mostly regarded as a method to determine optical constants of bulk materials. The relation between ellipsometry and thin films came later, with the works of P. Drude and Lord Rayleight.

Jules Jamin

Jules Célestin Jamin (1818-1886). If ellipsometry needs an inventor, it is him. He did many ellipsometry measurements and described the first ellipsometer, which was later made commercial by French optic intrument makers Soleil/Duboscq.

Here I share two of his publications from 1847 and 1850, which clearly describe how the polarization ellipse is measured upon light reflection on different materials.

Samuel Haughton

Samuel Haughton (1821-1897) made a great English summary of Jamin’s Publications and he himself made many more measurements using an ellipsometer that replicated Jamin’s description.

The first ellipsometer?

Jamin’s 1850 publication gives a detailed description of the instrument he was using. This instrument was made commercial by the French Scientific Instrument Makers Soleil, Duboscq, and their successors. The instrument was sold under the name of “Grand cercle de Jamin et Sernármont” and comprised one rotatable polarizer, one rotatable analyzer and an ajustable compensator. The “grand cercle” was used to adjust the angle of incidence. It seems it was possible to purchase this instrument during 1870s, possibly even earlier.

The image capture above comes from this catalog of instruments:

Interestingly, the instrument could be used both horizontally or vertically, allowing the sample to sit horizantally when needed (this was for example essential for the measurement of the refractive angle of liquids, which they did). I have found this photo of the grand “cercle” mounted vertically (samples horizontal then), although I am afraid that whoever took this photo did not arrange “ellipsometer arms” in a reasonable configuration.

I am looking for PhD cantidates to be funded by the 2022 FI scholarship program from Catalan research Agency. Students with a good academic record interested in developing a PhD in Physical Optics with a focus on the polarization of light can contact me,

More info:

Applications opened only until October 20! These are competitive positions but candidates with a good CV have a high success rate.

Local students are especially welcomed to apply.

FI scholarships offer good economic conditions and they also cover academic fees, other training activities and research stays.

We are curently working on an upgraded Mueller matrix microscope allowing for fast MM imaging. Stay tuned for more information about it!

Animation of growing Nickel sulphate crystals by Europhotonics Master Student Dale Gottlieb