CMB optical depth measurements: Past, present, future

The polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is encoded with exactly the same cosmic information as the CMB's temperature anisotropy. However, polarization has the additional promise of accurately probing the reionization history of the universe and potentially constraining, or detecting, the primordial background of gravitational waves produced by inflation. We demonstrate that these two CMB polarization goals are mutually compatible. A polarimeter optimized to detect the inflationary gravitational wave background signature in the polarization of the CMB is well situated to detect the signatures of realistic first-light scenarios. We also discuss current results and prospects for future CMB polarization experiments.