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Abstract This study delves into the polarization properties of various hair colors using several techniques, including polarization ray tracing, full Stokes, and Mueller matrix imaging. Our analysis involved studying hair in both indoor and outdoor settings under varying lighting conditions. Our results demonstrate a strong correlation between hair color and the degree of linear polarization. Specifically, light-colored hair, such as white and blond, exhibits high albedo and low DoLP. In contrast, dark hair, like black and brown hair, has low albedo and high DoLP. Our research also revealed that a single hair strand displays high diattenuation near specular reflections but high depolarization in areas with diffuse reflections. Additionally, we investigated the wavelength dependency of the polarization properties by comparing the Mueller matrix under illumination at 450 nm and 589 nm. Our investigation demonstrates the impact of hair shade and color on polarization properties and the Umov effect. 

We proposed a Wollaston-prism-based snapshot phase-shifting diffraction phase microscope (WP-SPDPM) for low-coherence snapshot quantitative phase imaging and videography. Wollaston prism separates two orthogonally linearly polarized beams with high degrees of polarization at a sufficiently small separation angle; one of the beams passing through a pinhole serves as the reference beam. Four phase-shifted interferograms are simultaneously acquired with a polarization camera to accurately retrieve a high spatial resolution phase map. The system is nearly common-path in configuration and can achieve a large slope range and high accuracy. In addition to the ability to resist environmental noise, the WP-SPDPM is suitable for phase measurement using low-coherence light. The accuracy and large measurable slope range of the proposed system is validated and compared experimentally with a commercial profilometer. We believe WP-SPDPM is a powerful tool for the accurate and robust quantitative phase measurement and has a significant potential of the real-time phase imaging. 

Polarization aberrations are found in most optical components due to a materials differing response to s- and p-polarizations. This differing response can manifest either as diattenuation, retardance, or both. Correction of polarization aberrations, such as these, are critical in many applications such as interferometry, polarimetry, display, and high contrast imaging, including astronomy. In this work, compensators based on liquid crystal polymer and anti-reflection thin-films are presented to correct polarization aberrations in both transmission and reflection configurations. Our method is versatile, allowing for good correction in transmission and reflection due to optical components possessing differing diattenuation and retardance dispersions. Through simulation and experimental validation we show two designs, one correcting the polarization aberrations of a dichroic spectral filter over a 170nm wavelength band, and the other correcting the polarization aberration of an aluminum-coated mirror over a 400nm wavelength band and a 55-degree cone of angles. The measured performance of the polarization aberration compensators shows good agreement with theory.