Abstract: A sensitive infrared polarimeter that measures the amount of degree of rotation of the plane of polarization of plane polarized radiation after the radiation has passed through a wafer of cadmium sulfide. The wafer is placed in a relatively small magnetic field that is varied. Increased sensitivity is realized by using a chopping wheel to chop the laser beam, providing a reference frequency and by detecting the signals with a synchronous detector such as a lock-in amplifier to obtain high signal to noise ratios of the detected signal. The greater sensitivity of the high-sensitivity infrared polarimeter allows electronic carrier concentrations as low as 10.sup.15 cm.sup.-3 to be measured in cadmium sulfide with magnetic fields as low as 0.1 Tesla.