Abstract

A general method for calculating the polarization effects of thin films on the instrumental polarization of symmetrical optical systems is presented. This method treats the coated optical surfaces as weak spatially varying polarizers and sums the surface contributions to determine the overall instrumental polarization. The Fresnel and thin-film equations for the interfaces are expanded in a Taylor series which describe the amplitude, phase, dichroism, and birefringence as functions of the angle of incidence. Using paraxial optics, these low-order surface polarization contributions may be readily summed to determine the variation of instrumental polarization for arbitrary paraxial ray paths. The resulting polarization behavior displays a close correspondence to the wavefront aberrations of geometrical optics and are thus called polarization aberrations. Suggestions for thin-film designs which compensate for instrumental polarization follow naturally.

© 1986 Optical Society of America