New instrument measures all polarization parameters simultaneously.
Hillsboro, Oregon, September 5, 2013 – Hinds Instruments, a leading global supplier of photoelastic modulators (PEMs), today announced it was awarded a 2013 R&D 100 award from R&D Magazine for its 150 XT Mueller Polarimeter. New York University was a co-developer on the project and joint award recipient. Dubbed the “Oscars of Invention” by the Chicago Tribune, the R&D 100 awards recognize the 100 most technologically significant products introduced over the past year.
The 150 XT Mueller Polarimeter is a new high speed polarimeter utilizing 4 photoelastic modulators (PEMs) to completely measure the polarization optical properties of a sample to parts per ten thousand. This new level of precision is enabled by the true first order polarization modulation provided by the stable high-quality performance of PEMs. By measuring 16 frequency components, the 16 elements of the Mueller matrix can be measured from a single dataset collected in less than a hundredth of a second. Such a diverse instrument allows the examination of complex layered media now common in modern electro-optic systems such as LCD compensation films and anisotropic optical materials.
Polarization optics are normally classified by four quantities: linear and circular birefringence and linear and circular dichroism. Most polarimetric instrumentation measures only one or two of these parameters while a 150XT Mueller Polarimeter can measure all these quantities simultaneously. Such a diverse measurement is enabled by collecting the complete Mueller matrix, a 4 by 4 real valued matrix.
“We are honored to have received this prestigious award for the 150XT Mueller Polarimeter,” said Dr. John Freudenthal, application scientist at Hinds Instruments and inventor of the new instrument. “It’s a nice testament to one of Hinds Instruments’ key capabilities: providing custom instrumentation based on our core PEM technology.” Hinds engineers worked closely with Dr. Bart Kahr, NYU Professor, and his group for well over a year developing the 150XT. Much of the work was conducted under the auspices of an NSF-sponsored Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) grant awarded to NYU and Hinds.
Hinds Instruments is the world leader in developing and supplying polarization modulation technology for a broad range of applications. With 40+ years of polarization modulation experience, Hinds Instruments PEM-based solutions are proven tools for laboratory and research applications. Hinds’ family of products includes modulators and demodulators, Stokes polarimeters, Mueller matrix polarimeters, MOKE measurement systems and Exicor® birefringence measurement systems. For more information, please contact Hinds Instruments.