Characterization of a medium by estimating the constituent components of its coherency matrix in polarization optics

Vincent Devlaminck (1) , Patrick Terrier (1) , Jean-Michel Charbois (1)

1 LAGIS-SI

In this work, an alternative route to analyze a set of coherency matrices associated to a medium is addressed by means of the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) technique. We highlight the possibility of extracting an underlying structure of the medium in relation to a model of constituent components. The medium is considered as a mixture of unknown constituent components weighted by unknown but statistically independent random coefficients of thickness. The ICA technique can determine the number of components necessary to characterize a set of sample of the medium. An estimate of the value of these components and their respective weights is also determined. Analysis of random matrices generated by multiplying random diattenuators and depolarizers is presented to illustrate the proposed approach and demonstrate its capabilities.

Mots clés: Polarimetry; Image Analysis; Pattern recognition; metrics

Domaines: Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Optique [physics.optics]

Vincent Devlaminck, Patrick Terrier, Jean-Michel Charbois. Characterization of a medium by estimating the constituent components of its coherency matrix in polarization optics. Optics Express, 2011, 19, pp.21665-21672. ⟨hal-00648795⟩