Optimization of polarizer angles for measurements of the degree and angle of linear polarization for linear polarizer-based polarimeters

• Noises of DoLP and AoP measured by linear polarizer-based polarimeters were modeled by a statistical strategy.
• Noises of the DoLP and AoP measured by different linear polarizer angle combinations were analyzed.
• The optimized combinations of linear polarizer angles that generate the smallest noise of DoLP and AoP were found.

Linear polarizer-based polarimeters that measure the degree of linear polarization (DoLP) and the angle of polarization (AoP) were considered in this study. Variances of DoLP and AoP of the region of interest (ROI) to be measured were analyzed using a statistical method. To simplify the calculation, only additive noise and shot noise were considered. Optimized combinations of the polarizers that can minimize the variances of DoLP and AoP were determined by investigating the variances of different polarizer combinations. Several regularities were found when analyzing the data obtained from the optimized combinations. Some variables in the combinations are inversely proportional to the cube or square root of the signal-to-noise ratio of the output signals from sensors without polarizer filtering, and these variables are functions of the DoLP of the ROI to be measured.