Elliptically polarised light with principal axes along and has Jones vector with…

PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Optics & Photonics · Polarisation and anisotropic media · Polarisation and anisotropic media

What an Instrument Can See, Ch Polarisation as a statistical object: coherency and Mueller matrices

Problem

Elliptically polarised light with principal axes along xx and yy has Jones vector (cos⁡β, isin⁡β)T(\cos\beta,\,i\sin\beta)^{\mathsf T} with ellipticity angle β=30∘\beta=30^\circ; its Stokes parameters are S1=S0cos⁡2βS_1=S_0\cos2\beta, S2=0S_2=0, S3=−S0sin⁡2βS_3=-S_0\sin2\beta, a left-handed ellipse. This beam passes through a quarter-wave plate with its fast axis horizontal. ((a)) Give the input state's normalised Stokes coordinates and its point on the Poincare sphere. ((b)) Describe the quarter-wave plate's action as a motion on the sphere: its axis and angle. ((c)) Find the output point and translate it back into a physical description of the output polarisation.

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