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The transfer-matrix method is a method used in optics and acoustics to analyze the propagation of electromagnetic or acoustic waves through a stratified medium; a stack of thin films. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] This is, for example, relevant for the design of anti-reflective coatings and dielectric mirrors .
This beam can be propagated through an optical system with a given ray transfer matrix by using the equation [further explanation needed]: [] = [] [], where k is a normalization constant chosen to keep the second component of the ray vector equal to 1. Using matrix multiplication, this equation expands as = (+) = (+).
Mueller calculus is a matrix method for manipulating Stokes vectors, which represent the polarization of light. It was developed in 1943 by Hans Mueller . In this technique, the effect of a particular optical element is represented by a Mueller matrix—a 4×4 matrix that is an overlapping generalization of the Jones matrix .
In optics, polarized light can be described using the Jones calculus, [1] invented by R. C. Jones in 1941. Polarized light is represented by a Jones vector, and linear optical elements are represented by Jones matrices.
Subscripts 1 and 2 refer to initial and final optical media respectively. These ratios are sometimes also used, following simply from other definitions of refractive index, wave phase velocity, and the luminal speed equation:
In applied mathematics, the transfer matrix is a formulation in terms of a block-Toeplitz matrix of the two-scale equation, which characterizes refinable functions. Refinable functions play an important role in wavelet theory and finite element theory.
The transfer-matrix method is used when the total system can be broken into a sequence of subsystems that interact only with adjacent subsystems. For example, a three-dimensional cubical lattice of spins in an Ising model can be decomposed into a sequence of two-dimensional planar lattices of spins that interact only adjacently.
Matrices can be used to compactly write and work with multiple linear equations, that is, systems of linear equations. For example, if A is an m×n matrix, x designates a column vector (that is, n×1-matrix) of n variables x 1, x 2, ..., x n, and b is an m×1-column vector, then the matrix equation =