Polarized Light and Optical Systems

<p><strong>Polarized Light and Optical Systems</strong> 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. <strong>Polarized Light and Optical Systems</strong> 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 <strong>Polarized Light and Optical Systems</strong> is a unifying treatment of polarization elements as optical elements and optical elements as polarization elements. </p><p><strong>Key Features</strong></p><ul> <li>Comprehensive presentation of Jones calculus and Mueller calculus with tables and derivations of the Jones and Mueller matrices for polarization elements and polarization effects</li> <p> </p> <li>Classroom-appropriate presentations of polarization of birefringent materials thin films stress birefringence crystal polarizers liquid crystals and gratings </li> <p> </p> <li>Discussion of the many forms of polarimeters their trade-offs data reduction methods and polarization artifacts</li> <p> </p> <li>Exposition of the <i>polarization ray tracing calculus</i> to integrate polarization with ray tracing</li> <p> </p> <li>Explanation of the sources of polarization aberrations in optical systems and the functional forms of these polarization aberrations</li> <p> </p> <li>Problem sets to build students’ problem-solving capabilities.</li> </ul>