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Jones Vectors and Matrices

Physics 4150
November 1, 2010

If we confine ourselves only to plane waves with a well-defined polarization state, a two-
component Jones vector is sufficient to fully describe the polarization. To describe the general
case of partially polarized light, its necessary to use 4-vectors, such as the Stokes parameters or
the Mueller matrices that correspond to them. We will not discuss these 4-vectors in Physics
4150, but there is a brief account in Chapter 8 of Hecht.

A. Jones Vectors

For propagation of a plane wave in the z direction, we can write

0
( )
0

, with an implied .
x
y
i
x
i kz t
i
y
E e
e
E e
|
e
|

| |
= |
|
\ .
E (1)
Note that the phase convention is the opposite of our usual one: kz et rather than et kz.

Sometimes the amplitudes are of interest and should be kept. But if only the polarization state is
of interest, we can normalize this vector,
2

1. = E For convenience the top entry is often chosen

to be real, since usually only the phase difference between the x- and y-components is of interest.

For linear polarization at an angle o from the x-axis, the x- and y-components are in phase and
the Jones vector can be written as


cos

.
sin
o
o
| |
=
|
\ .
E (2)



For circular polarization we have E
0x
= E
0y
, but there is a phase shift of t/2:


rcp lcp
1 1
1 1

, .
2 2
i i
| | | |
= =
| |

\ . \ .
E E (3)
Its easy to verify that if we have equal amounts of rcp and lcp light, we recover linear x-
polarization:
1 1 1
1 2
= linear polarization along .
0
2 2
i i
+
| | | |
=
| |
+
\ . \ .
x
Finally, for general elliptical polarization we have, if A>0 and C>0,

left left

( ) , ( ) .
A A
norm norm
B iC B iC
| | | |
= =
| |
+
\ . \ .
E E (4)
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A. Jones Matrices

Any optical element that causes a linear transformation can be described by a 2 2 matrix .
The polarization state after n such elements can be found by multiplying the initial Jones vector
by the matrices for all of the elements, ordered from right to left:


.
final inc
= E E
n n-1 2 1
A A A A (5)
Its easy to find the Jones matrix for a linear polarizer (vertical):

0
, since (linear along ).
0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1
A
B B
| | | || | | |
=
| | | |
\ . \ .\ . \ .
y A= (6)
For a linear polarizer with its axis at an arbitrary angle u,

2
2
.
cos sin cos
sin cos sin
u
u
u u
u u
| |
|
\ .
A= (7)
For a phase plate or retarder, in general,
.
0
0
x
y
i
i
e
e
c
c
| |
|
|
\ .
A= (8)
For a quarter-wave plate,

.
Fast axis horizontal: .
1 0
Fast axis vertical:
0
1 0
0
i
i
t
t
| |
|
\ .
| |
|
\ .

i /4
-i /4
A= e
A= e
(9)
For a half-wave plate,

.
Fast axis horizontal: .
1 0
Fast axis vertical:
0 1
1 0
0 1
t
t
| |
|
\ .
| |
|
\ .

i /2
-i /2
A= e
A= e
(10)
For a rotator, which can describe either polarization rotation by o or coordinate rotation by o,
.
cos sin
:
sin cos
o o
u u o
o o
| |
|
\ .

+ A= (11)
3
Example 1: Start with linear polarization at o, then pass it through a half-wave plate with its fast
axis vertical:


cos cos
(linear, but now at angle - ).
sin sin
1 0

0 1
t t
o o
o
o o
| || | | |
=
| | |

\ .\ . \ .

E
i /2 i /2
= e e
This verifies that the wave plate rotates linear polarization by 2o, as expected. To see this expli-
citly, pass the output through a linear polarizer oriented at angle o (ignoring the overall phase
factor, which is irrelevant), and show that there is full transmission:

2 3 2
2 2
2 2 3
cos cos cos cos sin
=(cos sin ) .
sin sin sin cos sin
cos sin cos

sin cos sin

o o o o o o
o o
o o o o o o
o o
o o
| | | | + | | | |
= +
| | | |

\ . \ . \ . \ .

E=

Example 2: Derive Eq. 7 on the previous page, for a linear polarizer oriented at an angle o. We
can do this by applying an initial rotation of o, which corresponds to rotating the coordinate
system by o. Then apply a linear polarizer oriented along x, and finish by rotating by o, back to
the original coordinates:

2
2
=
cos sin 1 0 cos sin cos sin cos sin
sin cos 0 0 sin cos sin cos 0 0
cos cos sin
cos sin sin
o o o o o o o o
o o o o o o
o o o
o o
| || || | | || |
=
| | | | |
\ .\ .\ . \ .\ .

.
o
| |
|
\ .