Variation of the Pauli matrices coefficients in a PCA system under non-desired effects for ellipsometric applications

The theory of Pauli matrices decomposition is described and its application to the analysis of non-ideal devices, which display first-order effects like optical activity or dichroism, has been developed. The analysis is extended to a Polarizer-Compensator-Analyser (PCA) system for ellipsometric applications. This analysis shows that the presence of non-desired effects into the system produces a high influence on the birefringent and dichroical behaviour, represented by the coefficients of the decomposition.