Mueller matrices and the degree of polarization

This article shows that only polarizers, retarders, and improper rotation Mueller matrices do not decrease the degree of polarization for any input Stokes vector. On the other hand, a Mueller matrix does not increase the degree of polarization for any input Stokes vector if and only if it has an unp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOptics communications Vol. 146; no. 1; pp. 11 - 14
Main Authors Lu, Shih-Yau, Chipman, Russell A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.01.1998
Elsevier Science
Subjects
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Jones matrix
Mueller matrix
Optics
Physics
Polarimetry
Polarization
Stokes vector
Wave optics
Mueller matrix
Polarization
Polarimetry
42.10
Stokes vector
Jones matrix
Theoretical study
Stokes parameters
Optical polarization
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Summary:This article shows that only polarizers, retarders, and improper rotation Mueller matrices do not decrease the degree of polarization for any input Stokes vector. On the other hand, a Mueller matrix does not increase the degree of polarization for any input Stokes vector if and only if it has an unpolarized Stokes vector as eigenvector. Furthermore, for any Mueller matrix an unpolarized incident Stokes vector always has the maximum gain in the degree of polarization. It is pointed out that a general Mueller matrix deforms the Poincaré sphere (for input Stokes vectors) into an ellipsoid (for output Stokes vectors). Finally, several inequalities involving the input and output degrees of polarization are derived.
ISSN:0030-4018
1873-0310
DOI:10.1016/S0030-4018(97)00554-3