Measurement of Pancharatnam's phase by robust interferometric and polarimetric methods

We report on theoretical calculations and experimental observations of Pancharatnam's phase originating from arbitrary SU(2) transformations applied to polarization states of light. We have implemented polarimetric and interferometric methods, which allow us to cover the full Poincare sphere. As a distinctive feature, our interferometric array is robust against mechanical and thermal disturbances, showing that the polarimetric method is not inherently superior over the interferometric one, as previously assumed. Our strategy effectively amounts to feeding an interferometer with two copropagating beams that are orthogonally polarized with respect to each other. It can be applied to different types of standard arrays, such as a Michelson, a Sagnac, or a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We exhibit the versatility of our arrangement by performing measurements of Pancharatnam's phases and fringe visibilities that closely fit the theoretical predictions. Our approach can be easily extended to deal with mixed states and to study decoherence effects.