Consideration of polarization during the ray tracing for mechanically stressed lenses in dynamical-optical systems

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In this work, a polarization ray tracing method for dynamical-optical systems is analyzed, in order to get information about the influence of mechanical stresses in optical lenses on the ray propagation. Therefore, elastic multibody system calculations are combined with a polarization ray tracing method. If an optical lens is mechanically loaded, the resulting deformation causes mechanical stresses. Thus, the optical glass behaves anisotropic and inhomogeneous, which affects the ray refraction within the optical lens and the state of polarization of the light rays. These changes in the light rays behavior are considered in the presented polarization ray tracing method. In addition to stress-induced birefringence at the lens front and gradient-index ray tracing within the lens, the state of polarization can be traced through the optical lens using Jones vectors. A numerical example demonstrates the advantage of this ray tracing method over geometrical ray tracing for dynamical-optical systems.