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Unitary and non-unitary operations on the Poincaré sphere and Pancharatnam-Berry phase with Z matrices

2022/05/02 by M. A. Kuntman, Kuntman, M. A., A. Kuntman +3
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · #FOS: Physical sciences #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Molecular spectroscopy and chirality #Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry #Optics (physics.optics)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2205.00789

openalex publication_date 2022/05/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

In polarization optics unitary and non-unitary operations can be carried out by the Jones matrix. Z matrix is the 4× 4 analogue of the Jones matrix and the Mueller matrix of a nondepolarizing optical medium can be written as M=ZZ^*. Jones matrix acts on the two component complex Jones vector, while the Z matrix acts on the four component real Stokes vector. Polarizer and retarder Z matrices can be written in compact forms in terms of the components of the position vector on the Poincaré sphere. In this note it is shown that the Pancharatnam-Berry geometric phase can be demonstrated by unitary and non-unitary Z matrix operations.

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