Here's an updated version of my Poincare sphere, with the coordinates on the outside, and a swivellable ball on the inside. Should be much easier to 'fidget' with, and use in demonstrations.
(For those that haven't seen it yet, the Poincare sphere is used for modelling the different ways light can be polarized: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_(waves)#Poincar%C3%A9_sphere)
The sphere itself is there, and the stokes axes (S1, S2, S3) are labelled with their extreme points (Horizontal, Vertical, Diagonal, Antidiagonal, Left Circular, Right Circular)
I've also included parts to show the behavior of the three most common optical tools. A waveplate, a Faraday rotator, and optical rotation (which I've called a 'sugar rotator' as it's more memorable). You can see how moving orientations of the waveplate, or using left-handed sugar instead of right-handed sugar will change the behavior.
More details here:
https://tinkeringsdotorg.wordpress.com/2018/08/31/better-poincare-sphere/
| Poincare_sphere_cup_v11.dxf | 602.1KB | |
| Poincare_sphere_cup_v11.svg | 131.7KB |
