Patent attributes
A polarization tracking device that tracks polarization fluctuation of light using a Stokes vector, includes: an updating unit configured to express a fluctuation amount of the Stokes vector on a Poincare sphere in an xy plane perpendicular to a travelling direction of a light wave using a first and a second angles, the first angle being an angle between a direction of an electric field of the light wave and y axis, and the second angle being a phase difference between a component of the optical electric field in a direction of the y axis and a component of the optical electric field in a direction of an x axis; and an application unit configured to rotate the Stokes vector using an inverse polarization rotation matrix expressed with the first and the second angles.