Jones matrix formalism for the theory of picosecond shear acoustic pulse detection.

A theoretical analysis of the transient optical reflectivity of a sample by a normalized Jones matrix is presented. The off-diagonal components of the normalized matrix are identified with the complex rotation of the polarization ellipse. Transient optical polarimetry is a relevant technique to detect shear acoustic strain pulses propagating normally to the surface of an optically isotropic sample. Moreover, polarimetry has a selective sensitivity to shear waves, as this technique cannot detect longitudinal waves that propagate normally to the sample surface.