Open AccessOblique propagation of light through a thick, space-variant birefringent element
Author(s) -
Ashan Ariyawansa,
Thomas G. Brown
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.26.018832
Subject(s) - birefringence , optics , oblique case , physics , electric field , physical optics , matrix method , ray , geometrical optics , finite element method , philosophy , linguistics , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
Understanding and modeling the propagation of polarized light through thick, space variant birefringent media is important in both fundamental and applied optics. We present and experimentally evaluate two methods to model the off axis propagation of polarized light through a thick stress-engineered optic (SEO). First, we use a differential equation solving method, which utilizes the analytic expression for the Jones matrix of the SEO leading to a numerical solution for the output electric field. Then we present a geometric method to obtain similar results with much less computational complexity. Finally, a comparison is done between the data and the simulations.