Poincare sphere and Degree of polarization

[Madara]

Hi,

Can someone explain the concept of "Poincare sphere"? What's the relationship between the Poincare Sphere and the Degree of polarization of EM fields?

Thanks
Madara

 

[Andy Resnick]

The Poicare sphere is a way of describing the 4-component Stokes vector:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization (about 1/2-way down)

The state of polarization is represented by a point on the sphere. Note: for fully polarized light, S_0 = 1 and the point lies on the surface of the sphere; partially polarized light has S_0<1 and so the point lies within the sphere.

Going from the Stokes formulation to the Jones formulation can be a little tricky:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokes_vector

Since the Stokes/Mueller forumlation is inherently statistical in nature, while the Jones matrices only hold for completely polarized light.

Does that help?

 

[Madara]

Thanks Andy. I will refer the wikipedia for more info.