Dealing depolarization of light in Mueller matrices with scalar metrics

Abstract

A number of depolarization metrics is applied to a series of reported Mueller matrices. It is shown the depolarization scalar metric Q(M) provides consistent results with the reported scalar metrics like the depolarization index and the degree of polarization. It is shown Q(M) provides additional information about the internal nature of the Mueller matrices, specifically when the upper limit, 3, is reached. It is also shown the depolarization index and the Q(M) metric are only necessary but not sufficient conditions for the physical realizability of Mueller matrices. Finally, Q(M) is proven to be consistent in all cases studied here.