Mueller matrix of imaging polarimeter’s optical system–comparison of simulation results obtained using Zemax and MATLAB software with experimental data

A procedure for simulating the Mueller matrix of an optical system across the field of view of a long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) imaging polarimeter is presented in this paper. The procedure is based on a ray-tracing model and uses off-the-shelf software and custom add-on procedures written in MATLAB. A simulation was conducted to obtain polarization ray tracing across the entire surface of the focal-plane array for a set of wavelengths within the LWIR (8–14 µm) window and within the instrument’s field of view of 7.3 ∘ × 5.5 ∘ with a set of different starting polarization states. Finally, the simulation results are compared with measurement data obtained from the home-designed optical train of a polarimetric camera. For Mueller matrix entries significantly larger than zero, both simulation and experiment results show high consistency, with overall RMS error of less than 2%. The presented results are useful when anticipation of a Mueller matrix of an imaging polarimeter is of high importance.