Time reversal symmetry-induced restrictions in polarization optics

Author

Christian Brosseau

Affiliations

Département de Physique, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, 6 Avenue Le Gorgeu, BP 809, 29285 Brest Cedex, France

Journal

Pure and Applied Optics: Journal of the European Optical Society Part A Create an alert RSS this journal

Issue

Volume 5, Number 6

Citation

Christian Brosseau 1996 Pure Appl. Opt. 5 755

doi: 10.1088/0963-9659/5/6/001


LETTER TO THE EDITOR

 
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Abstract

This paper is devoted to a theoretical analysis of the time reversal symmetry-induced restrictions on the polarization matrices representing the effect of deterministic, non-image-forming optical devices or scattering media which transform both the Jones vector and the Stokes vector. In particular, the fact that any Jones matrix is defined within a unitary operator, i.e. determined up to overall phase, arises as a direct consequence of time reversal symmetry. The corresponding transformation of the state of polarization in Poincaré space is also briefly discussed. Finally, we show that this parametrization may find applications to several problems, e.g. detection of broken time reversal symmetry in optical materials.

 
Dates

Issue 6 (November 1996)

Received 1 March 1996



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