Revisiting the generalized polar decomposition ofMueller matrices

Christian Heinrich, Jean Rehbinder, Jihad Zallat
2020 Optical Society of America. Journal A: Optics, Image Science, and Vision  
Mueller polarimetry is a powerful imaging modality that has been successfully applied to various application fields. Decomposition of Mueller matrices in elementary components is classically considered in order to unfold complex physical phenomena taking place in probed samples or scenes. In this context, the generalized polar decomposition, also known as Lu and Chipman decomposition, plays a prominent role. In this paper, we show that the set of candidate generalized polar decompositions is
more » ... her than the set used so far. Negative-determinant Mueller matrices are naturally addressed in the proposed framework. We show that taking into account those supplementary polar decompositions addresses issues raised in the literature. Application is carried out on synthetic and on measured Mueller matrices.
doi:10.1364/josaa.394099 pmid:32749267 fatcat:4svdt3e6m5el3ba7tt5lxpeaau