abstract
- © 2017 Optical Society of AmericaWe demonstrate an innovative technique based on the Pancharatnam¿Berry phase that can be used to determine whether an optical system characterized by a Jones matrix is homogeneous or inhomogeneous, containing orthogonal or nonorthogonal eigenpolarizations, respectively. Homogeneous systems have a symmetric geometric phase morphology showing line dislocations and sets of polarization states with an equal geometric phase. In contrast, the morphology of inhomogeneous systems exhibits phase singularities, where the Pancharatnam¿Berry phase is undetermined. The results show an alternative to extract polarization properties such as diattenuation and retardance, and can be used to study the transformation of space-variant polarized beams.