Fabrication of thin-film micropolarizer arrays for visible imaging polarimetry

We describe a microfabrication process for fabricating micropolarizer devices with polarization thin film. The polarization film is less than a 0.5 µm thick and can have a polarization extinction ratio of ∼330 in the visible wavelength range. A single-state micropolarizer array with polarizing pixels as small as 5 µm × 5 µm has been fabricated. A multilayer spatially multiplexed three-state micropolarizer line array with a 14.4-µm resolution has also been fabricated for visible imaging polarimetry application. © 2000 Optical Society of America.