Volume-grating Stokesmeter based on photonic bandgap structures.

An inherent polarization sensitivity of a volume grating, in general, can be used to determine all the Stokes parameters of input beams. We demonstrate the polarization-dependent bandgap in a photonic crystal in principle at any wavelength using the finite-difference time-domain method. We show how this bandgap can be used to realize a volume-grating Stokesmeter. We also present an explicit design for a high-speed version of such a Stokesmeter and identify design constraints that arise in this context. Finally, we describe a spectrally resolved volume-grating Stokesmeter based on the tunability of a photonic bandgap material.