PET intra-polymer identification via Mueller matrix polarimetry
Abstract
In this article, we demonstrate that Mueller matrix (MM) polarimetry provides a robust optical approach to discriminate polyethylene terephtalate (PET) materials based on processing-induced structural differences beyond standard chemical identification techniques. We build, calibrate, and automate a MM polarimeter to measure the MMs of various PET samples in the visible range. We observe distinct and reproducible behaviors in the Mueller matrix elements depending on the sample category, with consistent intra-category responses and clear inter-category variations. We measure the MMs of four PET categories. From these measurements, using the Lu-Chipman decomposition, we extract the effective retardance and show that the spectral shape of the retardance enables a clear discrimination between the four categories. We further analyze the spectral signatures by projecting them into a combined spectral angle mapper (SAM) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) feature space, introducing what we believe is a new spectral indicator that allows for an additional separation between PET categories either raw, thermoformed, or blown.
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BibTeX
@article{kfoury2026intrapolymer,
title = {{PET intra-polymer identification via Mueller matrix polarimetry}},
author = {Patrick Kfoury and Daphné Héran and Nicolas Emanuely and Metz Maxime and Ryad Bendoula},
journal = {Optics Express},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1364/oe.607657},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05727371v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - PET intra-polymer identification via Mueller matrix polarimetry
AU - Patrick Kfoury
AU - Daphné Héran
AU - Nicolas Emanuely
AU - Metz Maxime
AU - Ryad Bendoula
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/28
JO - Optics Express
DO - 10.1364/oe.607657
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05727371v1
AB - In this article, we demonstrate that Mueller matrix (MM) polarimetry provides a robust optical approach to discriminate polyethylene terephtalate (PET) materials based on processing-induced structural differences beyond standard chemical identification techniques. We build, calibrate, and automate a MM polarimeter to measure the MMs of various PET samples in the visible range. We observe distinct and reproducible behaviors in the Mueller matrix elements depending on the sample category, with consistent intra-category responses and clear inter-category variations. We measure the MMs of four PET categories. From these measurements, using the Lu-Chipman decomposition, we extract the effective retardance and show that the spectral shape of the retardance enables a clear discrimination between the four categories. We further analyze the spectral signatures by projecting them into a combined spectral angle mapper (SAM) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) feature space, introducing what we believe is a new spectral indicator that allows for an additional separation between PET categories either raw, thermoformed, or blown.
SN - 1094-4087
ER -