Jones calculus

Summary

Jones calculus describes fully polarized light by a vector in $\C^2$, the Jones vector. It describes each linear optical element by a $2 \times 2$ complex matrix, its Jones matrix. The effect of an element is matrix multiplication, and a chain of elements corresponds to the product of their matrices. It turns questions about polarizers, wave plates and rotators into linear algebra. It handles polarization of light with full phase information, but it cannot describe unpolarized or partially polarized light.