Planar Poincare Chart for predicting the change of polarization state in the elliptical birefringent material

The Planar Poincare Chart has been developed as a complete planar equivalence of the Poincare sphere. The four main parameters of the light wave represented by the chart are drawn separately on two parts, so that any orientation of the optical component can be shown on the chart. The Planar Poincare Chart can be used to graphically design and analyze the polarization dependent components, e.g. to predict the polarization change in the birefringent material. Depending on how the chart is projected, different types of birefringent materials can be investigated. The chart for linear and circular birefringent materials has been reported previously. In a more general case, a chart for elliptical birefringent material is developed where the linear and circular cases can be considered as special cases.