Optimal reception of partially polarized waves

Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics and Image Science, and Vision

Volumn 5, Issue 1, 1988, Pages 58-64

  Kostinski, Alexander B ^a   James, Brian D ^a   Boerner, Wolfgang M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84975542021     PISSN: 10847529     EISSN: 15208532     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1364/JOSAA.5.000058     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. A nonmonochromatic (time-dependent) wave can be completely polarized only if the two components fluctuate in phase, i.e., if the polarization ellipse fluctuates in magnitude without changing shape.
2. M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics, 2nd revised ed. (Pergamon, New York, 1964).
3. L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, Electrodynamics of Continuous Media, Vol. 8 of Course of Theoretical Physics (Pergamon, New York, 1960).
4. R. M. A. Azzam and N. M. Bashara, Ellipsometry and Polarized Light (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1977).
5. H. C. van de Hulst, Light Scattering by Small Particles (Dover, New York, 1981).
6. S. Chandrasekhar, Radiative Transfer (Dover, New York, 1960).
7. W. S. Bickel and W. M. Bailey, "Stokes vectors, Mueller matrices, and polarized scattered light," Am. J. Phys. 53, 468-478 (1985).
8. K. Kim, L. Mandel, and E. Wolf, "Relationship between Jones and Mueller matrices for random media," J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 4, 433-437 (1987).
9. R. Barakat, "Bilinear constraints between elements of the 4 × 4 Mueller-Jones transfer matrix of polarization theory," Opt. Commun. 38, 159-161 (1981).
10. R. Simon, "The connection between Mueller and Jones matrices of polarization optics," Opt. Commun. 42, 293-297 (1983).
11. H. Mueller, "The foundations of optics," J. Opt. Soc. Am. 38, 661-663 (1948).
12. Introduction of [M] as a linear operator implies additivity of the Stokes vectors, which, in turn, implies incoherent addition of waves R. M. A. Azzam and N. M. Bashara, Ellipsometry and Polarized Light (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1977), p. 149.
13. A. B. Kostinski and W.-M. Boerner, "On foundations of radar polarimetry," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag. AP-34, 1395-1404 (1986).
14. H. Mieras, "Comment," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag. AP-34, 1470-1471 (1986).
15. A. B. Kostinski and W.-M. Boerner, "Reply," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag. AP-34, 1471-1473 (1986). The polarization match [Eq. (10) of this paper] is discussed in detail in these references.
16. 2 the range of (-π/2, +π/2) is used by all computers for the calculation of the inverse tangent. It is particularly important for the correct inversion of Eqs. (8a) and (8b) because 2θ rather than θ enters the Stokes parameters resulting in a degeneracy of θ ± π/2.
17. H. C. Ko, "On the reception of quasi-monochromatic, partially polarized radio waves," Proc. IRE 50, 1950-1957 (1962).
18. G. Strang, Linear Algebra and Its Applications (Academic, New York, 1976).
19. G. E. Schilov, Linear Algebra (Dover, New York, 1977).
20. R. Barakat, "Conditions for the physical realizability of polarization matrices characterizing passive systems," J. Mod. Opt. (to be published).
21. E. S. Fry and G. W. Kattawar, "Relationships between the elements of the Stokes matrix," Appl. Opt. 20, 2811-2814 (1981).
22. B. J. Howell, "Measurement of the polarization effects of an instrument using partially polarized light," Appl. Opt. 18, 809-812 (1979).
23. During the preparation of our paper we came across a discussion of a similar problem in the paper by van Zyl et al. [J. van Zyl, C. H. Papas, and C. Elachi, "On the optimum polarizations of incoherently reflected waves," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag. AP-35, 818-825 (1987)], which is concerned with the optimization of total intensity rather than adjustable intensity. Although the basic equations and physical reasoning are not entirely clear to us, the resulting mathematical and numerical problems turn out to be quite similar (e.g., the sixth-order equation) and provide an interesting comparison of methods.