The technology to take full-hemisphere, reflective or transmissive scatter measurements with fully automated position and polarization control of the instrument now exists. Adoption of this technology will result in an instrument that is highly compatible in terms of operation and data output with those at other government research laboratories. Two significant innovative design features will extend the current state of the art. First is a new source design that uses the FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometer. It should result in higher performance instrumentation because of throughput and efficiency advantages. The second innovation is the measurement of the four Stokes parameters. A brute force approach requires broadband waveplates to produce and measure the required polarization components. There are two alternatives; one is easier experimentally, and the other is more suitable to automation than the brute force method.
Potential Commercial Applications: This device could be applied in materials research and process and quality control in steel, aluminum, plating, and paper industries.STATUS: Phase I Only
