Classical distinguishability as an operational measure of polarization

Björk, Gunnar; Guise, Hubert de; Klimov, A. B.; Hoz, P. de la; Sánchez-Soto, Luis L.

doi:10.1103/physreva.90.013830

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…In the latter case, the polarization state determines which of the Stokes parameters are modulated. We remark that the above interferometric interpretation is fundamentally different from that put forward very recently in [25], where the degree of polarization of classical light beams is expressed as a sum of purity and distinguishability with the latter given by a visibility in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer.…”

Section: Polarization In Electromagnetic Interferencecontrasting

confidence: 56%

Interferometric interpretation for the degree of polarization of classical optical beams

Leppänen¹,

Saastamoinen²,

Friberg³

et al. 2014

New J. Phys.

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We introduce an interferometric interpretation for the degree of polarization as a quantity characterizing the ability of a light beam to generate polarization modulation when it interferes with itself. The result is confirmed experimentally in Youngʼs interferometer with beams of controlled degree of polarization and by comparing to a standard polarimetric measurement. The new interpretation is a consequence of the electromagnetic interference law that we formulate for stationary, quasi-monochromatic, partially polarized light beams in time domain. Our work provides fundamental insight into the role of polarization in electromagnetic coherence and interference.

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Section: Polarization In Electromagnetic Interferencecontrasting

confidence: 56%

Interferometric interpretation for the degree of polarization of classical optical beams

Leppänen¹,

Saastamoinen²,

Friberg³

et al. 2014

New J. Phys.

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“…We conclude this section by noting that other measures of polarization have been proposed that are inspired by thought experiments, such as Rayleigh scattering [70] and interferometry [67]. The latter of these two measures was defined to be explicitly invariant to all unitary transformations of the field; the former, on the other hand, is invariant only to rotations and inversions.…”

Section: Other Measuresmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The rotational constraint γ [26] also corresponds to a Cartesian coordinate along a rotated coordinate axis aligned with the line joining the origin and the point mass Λ 1 ; its corresponding second measure, which would be the complementary Cartesian coordinate, would be proportional to λ 2 − λ 3 , which characterizes the rotational asymmetry of the wobble. This barycentric construction illustrates why many authors have chosen to represent the space of nonparaxial polarization in terms of equilateral triangles or segments of them [44,66,67,68,69]. Other authors have used spheres [44,53], because triangles can be mapped onto octants of the sphere.…”

Section: Barycentric Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geometric descriptions for the polarization for nonparaxial optical fields: a tutorial

Alonso¹

2020

Preprint

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This article provides an overview of the local description of polarization for nonparaxial fields, for which all Cartesian components of the vector field are significant. The polarization of light at each point is characterized by a 3 × 3 polarization matrix, as opposed to the 2 × 2 matrix used in the study of polarization for paraxial light. For nonparaxial light, concepts like the degree of polarization, the Stokes parameters and the Poincaré sphere have generalizations that are either not unique or not trivial. This work aims to clarify some of these discrepancies and provide a framework that highlights the similarities and differences with the description for the paraxial regimes. Particular emphasis is placed on geometric interpretations.

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“…This is the minimal averaged overlap between a state and all of its SU(2) transformed partners. Hence, it gives the maximum visibility one can achieve by using a polarization interferometer [293]. The drawback of this definition is that it is not trivial to determine the degree of polarization for a given state, since there is, in general, no obvious way to find theˆmaximizing the polarimetric visibility.…”

Section: Operational Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum concepts in optical polarization

et al. 2021

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We comprehensively review the quantum theory of the polarization properties of light. In classical optics, these traits are characterized by the Stokes parameters, which can be geometrically interpreted using the Poincaré sphere. Remarkably, these Stokes parameters can also be applied to the quantum world, but then important differences emerge: now, because fluctuations in the number of photons are unavoidable, one is forced to work in the three-dimensional Poincaré space that can be regarded as a set of nested spheres. Additionally, higher-order moments of the Stokes variables might play a substantial role for quantum states, which is not the case for most classical Gaussian states. This brings about important differences between these two worlds that we review in detail. In particular, the classical degree of polarization produces unsatisfactory results in the quantum domain. We compare alternative quantum degrees and put forth that they order various states differently. Finally, intrinsically nonclassical states are explored and their potential applications in quantum technologies are discussed.

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Classical distinguishability as an operational measure of polarization

Cited by 8 publications

References 63 publications

Interferometric interpretation for the degree of polarization of classical optical beams

Interferometric interpretation for the degree of polarization of classical optical beams

Geometric descriptions for the polarization for nonparaxial optical fields: a tutorial

Quantum concepts in optical polarization

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