A compact full Stokes polarimeter

In this paper, we describe the design, development and characterization of a compact po-larimeter. It works on the technique of rotating quarter wave plate to measure the full Stokes vector state of the incident light. The device integrates low cost commercial off-the-shelf components into a single block which eliminates the need of re-alignment and leads to a better precision and accuracy. The process of performing the intensity measurement and calculation of the polarization state has been fully automated using a microcontroller and a single-board computer i.e. Raspberry Pi. The total measurement time of the polarimeter is around 150 ms. The measurement accuracy and precision of the instrument are 0.5 degree and 0.025 degree respectively.