Abstract: We present a novel depolarization metric for Mueller matrices based on the differential Mueller formalism. The proposed metric relies on the statistical interpretation of the differential Mueller matrix. We show that the differential depolarization index successfully quantifies depolarization even when applied to specific types of Mueller matrices for which some widely used depolarization metrics yield erroneous results. Moreover, the fact that the presented metric is directly linked to the variances and covariances of the elementary anisotropic properties of the sample makes it a valuable tool to quantify depolarization on a physically meaningful basis.

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