2021/04/08 by Lisa Li, Li, Lisa, Meredith Kupinski +1 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Color Science and Applications #FOS: Physical sciences #Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry #Optics (physics.optics) #Surface Roughness and Optical Measurements
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2104.04081
openalex publication_date 2021/04/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Mueller polarized bi-directional scattering distribution functions (pBSDFs) are 4x4 matrix-valued functions which depend on acquisition geometry. The most popular pBSDF is a weighted sum between a Fresnel matrix and an ideal depolarizer. This work's main contribution is relating the relative weight between an ideal depolarizer and Fresnel matrix to a single depolarization parameter. Rather than a 16-dimensional matrix norm, this parameter can form a one-dimensional merit function. Then, instead of a full Mueller matrix measurement, a scheme for pBSDF fitting to only two polarimetric measurements is introduced. Depolarization can be mathematically expressed as the incoherent addition of coherent states. This work shows that, for a Mueller matrix to be in the span of a Fresnel matrix and an ideal depolarizer, the weights in the incoherent addition are triply degenerate. This triple degeneracy is observed in five different colored opaque plastics treated with nine different surface textures and measured at varying acquisition geometries and wavebands.