Recent progress in imaging polarimetry

✍ Scribed by C. U. Keller

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 819 KB
• Volume: 164
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00146637

✦ Synopsis

Recent instrumental developments in imaging polarimetry allow array detectors to reach a polarimetric sensitivity of 1 • 10 -4 of the intensity. New instrumental effects appear at these levels of sensitivity and generate spurious polarization signals with amplitudes of up to 5 • 10 -4. Here I discuss these effects and present methods to avoid them. Polarized spectra with an rms noise of 6 • 10 -6 may then be obtained. Furthermore a method is brought to the reader's attention that allows polarization measurements at the 1 • 10 -4 level with regular array detectors, e.g. in the near-infrared.