  Jones calculus provides a robust and straightforward method to characterize
polarized light and polarizing optical systems using two-element vectors (Jones
vectors) and $2 \times 2$ matrices (Jones matrices), respectively. Jones
matrices are used to determine the retardance and diattenuation introduced by
an optical element or a sequence of elements. Moreover, they are the tool of
choice to study optical geometric phases. However, the current sampling method
for characterizing the Jones matrix of an optical element is inefficient, since
the characterization of any given element is time-consuming. In this study, we
present an initial approach for solving the problem of finding the eigenvectors
that characterize the Jones matrix of a homogeneous optical element through
Evolutionary Strategies. We evaluate the analytical performance of an
Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) with a Polynomial Mutation operator and a Genetic
Algorithm (GA) with a Simulated Binary crossover operator and a Polynomial
Mutation operator, and compare the results with those obtained through the
traditional sampling method. The analytical results show that both the EA and
the GA out-performed the traditional sampling method of 720 measurements, by
requiring in average 106 and 193 fitness functions measurements respectively,
while having a perfect rate of convergence.
