Design of a millimeter-wave full-Stokes polarimeter utilizing optical up-conversion

The polarization properties of radiation can contain additional information beyond what is available with only an intensity measurement. A full-Stokes polarimeter is capable of measuring the four Stokes parameters which completely characterizes the polarization of detected radiation. A division of time full-Stokes polarimeter often uses a rotating polarizing element to measure all four Stokes parameters and this rotation can introduce artifacts due to wobbling. In this paper a system is proposed which uses an electrically controlled phase bias instead of a rotating element to create a full-Stokes polarimeter for a millimeter-wave system which utilizes optical up-conversion.