Polarimetric characterization of birefringent filter components.

Over the past 75 years, birefringent filter technology has evolved significantly. For nearly that same period of time, these filters have been designed and used by solar scientists to study the Sun. Prior to assembling these types of filters, each component, e.g., polarizers and wave plates, is characterized to determine its polarimetric parameters to ensure the desired filter design performance. With time and cost becoming an ever increasing issue, it is imperative to test components designated for a birefringent filter efficiently. This article addresses a shift to increased efficiency when testing components of very low volume (<5 units) solar research filters that minimizes high-priced hardware expenditures, i.e., Mueller matrix spectropolarimeter. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America