of fig1 and fig2 is illustrated in more detail in fig3 linear photodiode arrays 34 and 36 have a plurality of individual photodiodes 54 a b c etc and 56 a b c etc respectfully each sensitive to a wavelength band of interest the choice of photodiode semiconductor material depends on the wavelength band to be measured examples include but are not limited to indium gallium arsenide silicon indium antimonide and mercury cadmium telluride readout integrated circuits 58 and 60 are silicon cmos complementary metal oxide silicon transistor integrated circuits in alternative embodiments the readout integrated circuits 58 and 60 may be in other electronic architectures such as but not limited to gaas mesfet metal semiconductor field effect transistor or may be monolithically integrated with the photodiode arrays 34 and 36 or there may be no readout integrated circuits at all with readout implemented with external discrete components the signal detected by each photodiode 54 in linear photodiode array 34 corresponds to the intensity of one parallel polarization component at a single wavelength the signal detected by the corresponding photodiode 56 in photodiode array 36 corresponds to the intensity of the perpendicular polarization at the same wavelength the sum of the signals striking corresponding photodiodes 54 and 56 indicates the power the ratio of the signals striking corresponding photodiodes 54 and.