System and method for polarization measurement

An optical system for use in a measurement of polarization profile along a cross section of an optical beam, the optical system comprising:

• a polarization beam splitting assembly configured and operable for splitting an optical beam into six beam components with a predetermined polarization relation between them, the polarization beam splitting assembly comprising a first polarization beam splitter in an optical path of said optical beam configured for splitting said optical beam into three spatially separated beam components with a certain polarization relation between them propagating along three spaced-apart substantially parallel optical paths, and a birefringent element located in said optical paths for splitting each of said three beam components into a pair of ordinary and extraordinary polarization components, thereby producing said six beam components;
• intensity distribution within said six beam components of the optical beam being indicative of the polarization profile along the cross section of said optical beam;
• and
• a pixel matrix for detecting intensity distribution within a beam incident thereon, said pixel matrix being located in substantially non intersecting optical paths of said six beam components and generating output data pieces indicative of intensity distribution within said six beam components, respectively, data contained in said data pieces being indicative of the polarization profile along the cross section of the input optical beam.