English

Singular Mueller matrices

Optics 2016-04-06 v3

Abstract

Singular Mueller matrices play an important role in polarization algebra and have peculiar properties that stem from the fact that either the medium exhibits maximum diattenuation and/or polarizance, or because its associated canonical depolarizer has the property of fully randomizing, the circular component (at least) of the states of polarization of light incident on it. The formal reasons for which the Mueller matrix M of a given medium is singular are systematically investigated, analyzed and interpreted in the framework of the serial decompositions and the characteristic ellipsoids of M. The analysis allows for a general classification and geometric representation of singular Mueller matrices, of potential usefulness to experimentalists dealing with such media.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1512.04923,
  title  = {Singular Mueller matrices},
  author = {Jose J. Gil and Razvigor Ossikovski and Ignacio San Jose},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.04923},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

10 pages, 3 tables

R2 v1 2026-06-22T12:10:36.046Z