
178 OPTICS FOR ENGINEERS
RHC
X
Y
S/I
/I
C/I
LHC
–45°
45°
Figure 6.25 Poincaré sphere. The polarization state is completely described by a point on the
sphere. A surface point denotes complete polarization, and in general the radius is the degree
of polarization.
• Coherency matrices can be used to dene partially polarized light and are consistent
with the Jones calculus.
• The Stokes vector contains the same information as the coherency matrix.
• Mueller matrices represent devices and operate on Stokes vectors, but are somewhat
unintuitive.
• Many partial-polarization problems can best be solved by using the Jones matrices with
coherency matrices and interpreting ...