I'm aware of Pancharatnam's work (however don't have access to it). I have heard of "Generalised Jones Vectors". I would like to know how to superimpose two arbitrary but monochromatic elliptically-polarised photons that may also be phase-retarded (like in a diffraction scenario), but their angle of incidence (again, like in a diffraction scenario) is also arbitrary: possibly zero degrees, possibly even 180 degrees.
however where diffraction is of linearly-polarised light, i need to do arbitrary-axis elliptically-polarised light.
i have looked at Castillo's 2008 paper, he explains how it is possible to move Jones Vectors onto spinors on a Poincare Sphere, in order to superimpose monochromatic elliptically-polarised plane waves... but the visualisation (Poincare) system he uses is to help with the difference in the *axis* of the polarised waves, *not* in the angle between the *DIRECTION* of the two waves. i.e. his work is based on the assumption that the two waves are the same frequency and the same direction.
help greatly appreciated.