Optical Design of an Aperture-Divided MWIR Imaging Polarimeter

Abstract

The polarization state of light emitted or reflected from scene contains massive important information about target, such as the geometry, surface properties, material characteristics and so on. Imaging polarimetry can measure the polarimetric information efficiently, and show significant advantages for target detection and discrimination in situations. In this paper, we design an aperture-divided optical system of MWIR imaging polarimeter, which consists of one co-aperture front Galilean telescope, four sub-aperture double-gauss objectives and one co-aperture Cooke triplet relay lens. Its focal length is 68 mm, F number F/2 and FOV 4° × 3.2°. The light emitted or reflected from target is collected by the co-aperture front telescope, and imaged simultaneously onto the four quadrants of the same FPA detector respectively by four decentered parallel subsystems, which divide the aperture into four parts. Each subsystem has different polarizing element, and the four different polarization images of the same target can be acquired simultaneously. The suggested optical system for imaging polarimeter employs relay lens, in order to implement 100% efficiency of its cold stop. It can be developed as payloads of reconnaissance aircraft, satellite or missile seeker etc.

The original version of this chapter was revised: The spelling of the first author’s name was corrected. The erratum to this chapter is available at doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-49184-4_50