2 research outputs found
On the Derivation of Vector Radiative Transfer Equation for Polarized Radiative Transport in Graded Index Media
Light transport in graded index media follows a curved trajectory determined
by the Fermat's principle. Besides the effect of variation of the refractive
index on the transport of radiative intensity, the curved ray trajectory will
induce geometrical effects on the transport of polarization ellipse. This paper
presents a complete derivation of vector radiative transfer equation for
polarized radiation transport in absorption, emission and scattering graded
index media. The derivation is based on the analysis of the conserved
quantities for polarized light transport along curved trajectory and a novel
approach. The obtained transfer equation can be considered as a generalization
of the classic vector radiative transfer equation that is only valid for
uniform refractive index media. Several variant forms of the transport equation
are also presented, which include the form for Stokes parameters defined with a
fixed reference and the Eulerian forms in the ray coordinate and in several
common orthogonal coordinate systems.Comment: This paper has been submitted to JQSR