Calibration method for thermal infrared division-of-focal-plane polarimeters considering polarizer reflection characteristics.

ABSTRACT

Owing to manufacturing defects of micropolarizer arrays and differences in the pixel response of detectors, division-of-focal-plane (DoFP) polarimeters have severe nonuniformity, which affects the measurement accuracy of the polarimeters and the calculation of the polarization information. This study proposes a calibration method for thermal infrared DoFP polarimeters considering polarizer reflection characteristics. The temperature-controlled adjustable infrared polarized radiation source is calibrated by a division-of-time polarimeter and is, in turn, used to calibrate a thermal infrared DoFP polarimeter. Through laboratory blackbody and external scenes, the performance of the proposed method is compared to that of state-of-the-art techniques. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method effectively avoids overcalibration and improves the accuracy of polarization information.