Degree of polarization as a measurable quantity for a quantum optical field containing variously polarized photons

• Authors: Lukasz Michalik , Andrzej Domanski
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

We focus on a comparison between the classical and quantum descriptions of the degree of polarization of an optical field. A quantum field containing photons with various states of polarization and which propagate in the same direction in free space one after another (a so called photon beam) is analyzed. We show that the formulated definition of degree of polarization for this quantum field leads to a measurable quantity. The concept of a thought experiment is presented.

Keywords

EN

quantum optics; photons; state of polarization; degree of polarization

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Open Physics
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 454-458

Dates

published

1 - 4 - 2012

online

31 - 3 - 2012

Contributors

author

Lukasz Michalik

• Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology, Koszykowa 75, 00-662, Warsaw, Poland

author

Andrzej Domanski

• Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology, Koszykowa 75, 00-662, Warsaw, Poland

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s11534-012-0001-7