| Abstract: | The method of the Poincaré sphere, which was proposed by Henri Poincaré in 1891–1892, is a convenient approach to represent polarized light. This method is graphical: each point on the sphere corresponds to a certain polarization state. Apart from the obvious representation of polarized light, the method of the Poincaré sphere permits efficient solution of problems that result from the use of a set of phase plates or a combination of phase plates and ideally homogeneous polarizers. Recently, to calculate the geometric phase (which is often called the Berry phase) in polarization optics and quantum and classical mechanics, the method of the Poincaré sphere has drawn much attention, since it allows us to carry out these calculations very efficiently and intuitively using the solid angle resting, on a closed curve on the Poincaré sphere that corresponds to the change in the state of light polarization or in the state of spin of an elementary particle or its orientation in space from the viewpoint of systems in classical mechanics. The review considers papers on the above problems. Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 265–307, March. 1997. |
