Abstract
The formalisms of the Mueller calculus and the Poincaré sphere are applied to the photoelastic problem and a general intensity method for measurement of stress-optical constants is derived. This general method overcomes certain limitations of some of the existing methods and hence is about ten times more sensitive. The power of the new method is indicated by utilizing the frozen stress in a specimen for dispersion measurements without externally stressing it. We have measured the stress-optical dispersion of fused silica and calcium fluoride by this technique, over the range from 250 to 580 mµ.

This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit: