JONES MATRICES OF A QUARTER-WAVE PLATE FOR GAUSSIAN BEAMS

The Jones matrix of a quarter-wave plate is studied theoretically and experimentally, taking into account internal reflections, the ellipsoi d of the indices, geometric defects, the tilt angle, and the character istics of the incident Gaussian beam. The influence of the different p arameters is isolated, and large discrepancies are observed with respe ct to results obtained from the Jones matrix that are usually given in textbooks. It is shown that the effective Jones matrix of the plate d oes not depend on the longitudinal position of the plate on the Gaussi an beam but only on the beam-waist size. This leads to a method of cha racterization of the defects of a quarter-wave plate that is more prec ise than the usual methods. Different procedures to optimize the effic iency of a given plate are discussed, taking the plate defects into ac count. In all cases, a good agreement between experiments and theory i s obtained. (C) 1995 Optical Society of America