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 microm thick and can have a polarization extinction ratio of approximately 330 in the visible wavelength range. A single-state micropolarizer array with polarizing pixels as small as 5 microm x 5 microm has been fabricated. A multilayer spatially multiplexed three-state micropolarizer line array with a 14.4-microm resolution has also been fabricated for visible imaging polarimetry application.