Optical Artifacts in Circularly Polarized Luminescence Spectroscopy

Abstract
The source of optical artifacts in circularly polarized luminescence is examined by application of the method of Mueller matrices. Expressions for the circularly polarized luminescence intensity are developed that illustrate that the source of the artifact in most cases is due to the small inherent birefringence in the photoelastic modulator employed in the experimental measurement. Experimental results are presented that are consistent with this conclusion.