On the performance of the physicality-constrained maximum-likelihood estimation of Stokes vector
We address the estimation of the Stokes vectors taking into account the physical realizability constraint. We propose a fast method for computing the constrained maximum-likelihood (CML) estimator for any measurement matrix, and we compare its performance with the classical empirical physicality-con...
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Published in | Applied optics. Optical technology and biomedical optics Vol. 52; no. 27; p. 6636 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
20.09.2013
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Online Access | Get more information |
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Summary: | We address the estimation of the Stokes vectors taking into account the physical realizability constraint. We propose a fast method for computing the constrained maximum-likelihood (CML) estimator for any measurement matrix, and we compare its performance with the classical empirical physicality-constrained estimator. We show that when the measurement matrix is based on four polarization states spanning a regular tetrahedron on the Poincaré sphere, the two estimators are very similar, but the CML provides a better estimation of the intensity. For an arbitrary measurement matrix, the CML estimator does not always yield better estimation performance than the empirical one: their comparative performances depend on the measurement matrix, the actual Stokes vector and the signal-to-noise ratio. |
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ISSN: | 2155-3165 |
DOI: | 10.1364/AO.52.006636 |