Spectral Stokesmeter. 1. Implementation of the device

We describe a spectral Stokesmeter: a device for fast simultaneous measurement of the four Stokes parameters of light. It consists of an original optical part, a four-channel scanning optoelectronic system, and a controlling computer system. The original optical scheme was first proposed by us. It is based on two holographic gratings, one of which is a special type of polarization grating. It allows an easy calibration of the device comprising wavelength and sensitivity calibration. The spectral range of the present implementation of the spectral Stokesmeter is 520-750 nm, and the error in the measurement of the normalized Stokes parameters is < or = 0.05.