Introduction to Jones Calculus
Abstract: Jones Calculus is a mathematical technique for describing the polarization
state of light and calculating the evolution of the polarization state as light passes
through optical devices. Any state of polarization can be described by a two-element
Jones vector, and the linear operation of any optical device can be fully described by a
2 2 Jones matrix. A system of multiple devices can be straightforwardly modeled
by multiplying the component Jones matrices to yield a single system Jones matrix.
A broadly useful representation for polarized light was invented in 1941 by R. Clark
Jones. Like the method of Stokes parameters and Mueller matrices, the Jones method pro-
vides a mathematical description of the polarization state of light, as well as a means to
calculate the effect that an optical device will have on input light of a given polarization
state. The method of Jones is unique in that it deals with the instantaneous electric field,
whereas the Stokes parameters describe a time-averaged optical signal. For this reason the
Stokes/Mueller method is often chosen for use with light of rapidly and randomly chang-
ing polarization state, such as natural sunlight, while the Jones method is preferred when
using coherent sources such as lasers.
Since light is composed of oscillating electric and magnetic fields, Jones reasoned that the
most natural way to represent light is in terms of the electric field vector. When written as
a column vector, this vector is known as a Jones vector and has the form
Ex ( t )
E = , (EQ 1)
Ey ( t )
where E x ( t ) and E y ( t ) are the instantaneous scalar components of the electric field. Note
that these values can be complex numbers, so both amplitude and phase information is
present. Oftentimes, however, it is not necessary to know the exact amplitudes and phases
of the vector components. Therefore Jones vectors can be normalized and common phase
factors can be neglected. This results in a loss of information, but can greatly simplify
expressions. For example, the following vectors contain varying degrees of information,
but are all Jones vector representations for the same polarization state:
i i
E0 e 1
e . (EQ 2)
i i i ( )
E0 e e e
Note that a complex vector is said to be normalized when the dot product of the vector
with its complex conjugate yields a value of unity.
1
It is most often the case that the basis for the Jones vector is chosen to be the horizontal
and vertical linear polarization states. In this case the representations for these two states
are
Ex ( t ) 0
Eh = and E v = , (EQ 3)
0 Ey ( t )
or, in normalized form,
E h = 1 and E v = 0 , (EQ 4)
0 1
where E h and E v represent horizontally and vertically polarized light, respectively. The
sum of two coherent light beams is given by the sum of their corresponding Jones vector
components, so the sum of E h and E v when E y ( t ) = E x ( t ) is given by
Ex ( t ) 1
E 45 = ------- 1 , (EQ 5)
Ex ( t ) 2 1
where the arrow indicates normalization. Note that this is the representation of the polar-
ization state in which the electric field is oriented at a 45 degree angle with respect to the
basis states.
Two other common polarization states are right-circular and left-circular. In both cases
the two components have equal amplitude, but for right circular the phase of the y-compo-
nent leads the x-component by 2 , while for left circular it is the x-component that
leads. Thus the Jones vector representation for right-circular is
i
E0 e
ER = . (EQ 6)
i( 2)
E0 e
i
Normalizing this expression and factoring out a constant phase factor of e yields
1 1 1
E R = ------- = ------- 1 . (EQ 7)
2 e i 2 2 i
Similarly, the normalized representation for left-circular light is
1
E L = ------- 1 . (EQ 8)
2 i
2
Next consider a beam of light represented by the Jones vector
E ix
Ei = (EQ 9)
E iy
incident on an optical device. The light will interact with the device, and the new polar-
ization state of the light upon exiting the device will be
E tx
Et = . (EQ 10)
E ty
The coupling between these two vectors can be fully described by a set of four coefficients
according the following pair of linear equations:
E tx = aE ix + bE iy (EQ 11)
E ty = cE ix + dE iy .
These two equations can be rewritten using matrix notation as
E t = JE i (EQ 12)
where
J = a b (EQ 13)
c d
is the Jones matrix of the optical device. A list of Jones matrices for some common opti-
cal devices appears in Table 1.
It is possible to represent the passage of a beam of light through multiple devices as the
multiplication of Jones matrices. Note that the matrices do not commute, as illustrated by
the following example. Lets assume a vertically polarized input signal, and look at its
propagation through two devices, a linear polarizer oriented at 45 and a quarter-wave
plate with its fast axis vertical. If the light passes through the polarizer first, followed by
the wave plate, we have
Et = 1 0 1 1 1 (EQ 14)
0 i 1 1 0
= 1 0 1
0 i 1
= 1 ,
i
3
where we have neglected common amplitude and phase factors for simplicity. The output
is right-circularly polarized. Now if the light passes through wave plate before the polar-
izer, the result is
Et = 1 1 1 0 1 (EQ 15)
1 1 0 i 0
= 1 1 1
1 1 0
= 1 ,
1
which is light linearly polarized at 45 .
While matrix multiplication is not commutative, it is associative, so a string of multiple
Jones matrices representing several devices may be multiplied together yielding a single
Jones matrix which describes the optical system as a whole. Therefore it is possible to
condense the properties of N optical devices acting in series down to a single 2 2 matrix
simply by multiplying the Jones matrices of the devices.
TABLE 1. Jones Matrices of Common Optical Devices
0 0 1--- 1 i
Vertical Linear Right Circular 2 i 1
Polarizer
0 1 Polarizer
Horizontal Linear Left Circular Polar-
Polarizer 1 0 izer 1--- 1 i
0 0 2 i 1
Linear Polarizer at Quarter-wave plate,
1 1 1 fast axis vertical i 4 1 0
45 --- e
2 1 1 0 i
Lossless fiber trans- Quarter-wave plate,
mission i
e cos e
i
sin fast axis horizontal e
i 4 1 0
i i 0 i
e sin e cos
