Salazar-Ariza Karol, Torres Rafael
J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis. 2018 Jan 1;35(1):65-72. doi: 10.1364/JOSAA.35.000065.
The emerging polarization states from a linearly polarized monochromatic light passing through a rotating linear quarter-wave plate have been characterized as the intersection curve of a cylinder and the Poincaré sphere. But in the cases where the input polarization states are in general elliptical or circular and pass through a rotating linear retarder, the emerging polarization states produce trajectories that do not correspond to the intersection of a sphere with one cylinder. Hence, in this work, we present a full characterization of the trajectories on the Poincaré sphere for monochromatic input beams with an arbitrary polarization state passing through a rotating linear retarder as the intersection curve of the Poincaré sphere with a cone. Moreover, it is shown that these trajectories are characterized by their projection on the equator plane, having the form of limaçon of Pascal (Pascal's snails).
通过旋转线性四分之一波片的线偏振单色光所产生的新兴偏振态已被表征为圆柱与庞加莱球的交线。但在输入偏振态一般为椭圆或圆偏振且通过旋转线性延迟器的情况下，新兴偏振态产生的轨迹并不对应于球体与一个圆柱的交线。因此，在这项工作中，我们给出了具有任意偏振态的单色输入光束通过旋转线性延迟器时，庞加莱球上轨迹的完整表征，即庞加莱球与一个圆锥的交线。此外，还表明这些轨迹的特征在于它们在赤道平面上的投影，其形式为帕斯卡蚶线（帕斯卡蜗线）。
