Duality in optical theory of twisted birefringent media

Two classical treatments of the transformation of the polarization of light in twisted birefringent media belong to Neumann and Kuske [see H. Aben, Integrated Photoelasticity (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1979)]. Since these authors have chosen parameters that characterize the state of polarization differently, the equations derived by them have been considered to be independent of one another. We show that duality exists between these equations. By the appropriate exchange of parameters, the first system of equations is transformed into the second one and vice versa. This duality follows from the duality between the two different parametric representations of the unitary unimodular matrix that describes the transformation of polarization in twisted birefringent media. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America [S0740-3232(99)01610-5].