Polarized Light and Optical Systems presents polarization optics for undergraduate and graduate students in a way which makes classroom teaching relevant to current issues in optical engineering. This curriculum has been developed and refined for a decade and a half at the University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences.
Polarized Light and Optical Systems provides a reference for the optical engineer and optical designer in issues related to building polarimeters, designing displays, and polarization critical optical systems. The central theme of
Polarized Light and Optical Systems is a unifying treatment of polarization elements as optical elements and optical elements as polarization elements.
Key Features
Comprehensive presentation of Jones calculus and Mueller calculus with tables and derivations of the Jones and Mueller matrices for polarization elements and polarization effects
Classroom-appropriate presentations of polarization of birefringent materials, thin films, stress birefringence, crystal polarizers, liquid crystals, and gratings
Discussion of the many forms of polarimeters, their trade-offs, data reduction methods, and polarization artifacts
Exposition of the polarization ray tracing calculus to integrate polarization with ray tracing
Explanation of the sources of polarization aberrations in optical systems and the functional forms of these polarization aberrations
Problem sets to build students' problem-solving capabilities. "The authors have produced an excellent text on polarized light and optical systems, which was developed and tested for 15 years at the University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences. This comprehensive reference is well suited to support a flexible curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students majoring in optical design or engineering...Altogether, it should be favorably received by a wide readership, including applied scientists."
~Axel Mainzer Koenig, CEO, 21st Century Data Analysis, Portland, Oregon, USA
Polarized Light and Optical Systems
1. Introduction and Overview. 2. Polarized Light. 3. Stokes Parameters and the Poincare Sphere. 4. Interference of Polarized Light. 5. Jones Matrices and Polarization Properties. 6. Mueller Matrices. 7. Polarimetry. 8. Fresnel Equations. 9. Polarization Ray Tracing Calculus. 10. Optical Ray Tracing. 11. The Jones Pupil and Local Coordinate Systems. 12. Fresnel Aberrations. 13. Thin Films. 14. Jones Matrix Data Reduction with Pauli Matrices. 15. Paraxial Polarization Aberrations. 16. Image Formation with Polarization Aberration. 17. Parallel Transport and the Calculation of Retardance. 18. A Skew Aberration. 19. Birefringent Ray Trace. 20. Beam Combination with Polarization Ray Tracing Matrices. 21. Uniaxial Materials and Components. 22. Crystal Polarizers. 23. Diffractive Optical Elements. 24. Liquid Crystal Cells. 25. Stress-Induced Birefringence. 26. Multi-Order Retarders and the Mystery of Discontinuities. 27. Summary and Conclusions.