A polarization imaging camera with a waveplate array fabricated with a femtosecond laser inside silica glass

In this study, we demonstrate use of a polarization imaging camera with a waveplate array of a silica glass fabricated by femtosecond (fs) laser direct writing. To use a waveplate array of silica glass for polarization imaging, non-uniformity of the transmittance and retardance in the waveplates must be considered. Therefore, we used a general method of polarization analysis with system matrices determined experimentally for all the units in the waveplate array to analyze polarization images. We found that a figure of merit based on the determinant of the system matrix could be applied to improve the analysis of both the simulated and the real waveplate array.