Polarized Light and Optical Design with Russell Chipman

Learn about polarized light from a leading expert in polarization optics!

The SPIE course "Polarized Light and Optical Design," taught by Russell Chipman, will explore how polarized light interacts with optical elements, demonstrating how to model and manage these effects using advanced ray-tracing techniques. This video provides a one-hour preview of the entire course.

You’ll be introduced to the foundations of polarization ray tracing, which extends traditional ray tracing by propagating Jones vectors and Stokes parameters through systems that manipulate polarized light.

Chipman explains how to use Jones and Mueller matrices for both coherent and incoherent analysis, providing a structured approach to understanding how optical components affect polarized light, including polarizers, retarders, anisotropic thin films, and liquid crystals.

Chipman also examines how polarization effects lead to polarization aberrations that can impact system performance. These aberrations are particularly relevant when dealing with polarized light in high-precision imaging systems. Examples include stress birefringence, uniaxial and biaxial crystals, multilayer coatings, and diffractive optics.

The course ties these concepts together through system-level analysis using Polarization Ray Tracing, offering a comprehensive look at how to design and evaluate optical systems with polarization in mind.

Learn more about this course here: https://spie.org/SC1247-Chipman