Polarization Imaging Application with Smartphones

Light polarization, which is the direction of electromagnetic field oscillation, provides information that is highly different from that of spectral and intensity images and thus can enhance various fields of optical metrology. Polarization imaging can be also used by combining polarization and imaging, thereby providing polarization and spatial information. In university physics teaching, light polarization is limited to the understanding of the polarization state of a single beam and polarization imaging is rarely involved. Here we use the camera of a smartphone, a polarizer, and 3D printing components to create a simplified imaging polarimeter, thus showing the characteristics of polarization imaging and its application.