Determining roughness and index of refraction of a material

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions, which when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

• receiving images captured of a material sample from multiple polarization angles;
• determining information describing light distribution and brightness of the material sample depicted in the images based on the multiple polarization angles;
• determining an index of refraction property for the material sample based on the light distribution and the brightness of the material sample;
• and
• generating an output that visually identifies the index of refraction property of the material sample.

A system comprising:

• means for receiving images captured of a material sample from multiple polarization angles;
• means for determining information describing light distribution and brightness of the material sample depicted in the images based on the multiple polarization angles;
• means for determining a roughness property and an index of refraction property for the material sample based on the light distribution and the brightness of the material sample;
• and
• means for generating an output that visually identifies the roughness property or the index of refraction property of the material sample.