Properties of high-numerical-aperture Mueller-matrix polarimeters

To our knowledge there has been very little work done to establish the theoretical basis of high-NA Mueller matrix polarimetry. We consider how high-NA polarimetry differs from traditional wide-field polarimetry. We show that confocal polarimetry leads to an averaging of the sample Jones matrices, each of which is associated with one of the incident plane waves comprising the incident focused field and that a conventional polarimeter leads to an averaging of sample Mueller matrices. We conclude with an example. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America