Page 593 - Introduction to Information Optics

578 10. Sensing with Optics

. 10.6. Poincare sphere.

representation of polarization is called the Poincare sphere, as shown in
Fig. 10.6. The radius of the sphere equals the s 0 component of the Stokes
vector, and the Cartesian axes with origin at the center of the sphere are used
to represent the s l5 s 2, and s 3 components of the vector. Thus, any point on
this sphere may be projected on the axes to yield its corresponding Stokes
vector components. Based on the Poincare sphere, the change from one
polarization state to another polarization state can be transformed as two
rotations of the sphere; one through an appropriate 2i^, followed by a second
rotation of 2y.
To quantitatively determine the polarization state transition from one
polarization state to another polarization state, a polarization transformation
matrix approach is used. The most widely used ones are the Mueller calculus
and the Jones calculus [11].
In the Jones calculus, the polarization state is represented by the Jones
vector, which is a two-component complex number

a = (10.5)