Phase measurement of a spatially varying polarization distribution

The measurement of the polarization and phase distributions of a wave field is an often posed problem [1,2]. Usually, the polarization is determined by measuring the Stokes parameters, but without access to the phase. Phase shifting interferometry (PSI) may be used to determine the phase, but without considering the polarization as a measurand. In this work, we will propose an interferometric approach for a spatially resolved measurement of both phase and polarization, as long as the local polarization at any point is linear. This is achieved by introducing a new set of algorithms similar to the well established ones used in PSI [3].