Title

Changes in the state of polarization of a random electromagnetic beam on propagation

Authors

Authors

O. Korotkova;E. Wolf

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Opt. Commun.

Keywords

state of polarization; free space propagation; COHERENT GAUSSIAN-BEAM; ATMOSPHERIC-TURBULENCE; FREE-SPACE; MODEL; Optics

Abstract

We show that the state of polarization of the polarized portion of a random, statistically stationary, electromagnetic beam may change on propagation, even in free space. We derive analytic formulas for the orientation angle and for the magnitudes of the major and of the minor axes of the polarization ellipse in terms of the elements of the 2 x 2 cross-spectral density matrix of the electric field. We also obtain conditions for the invariance of the state of polarization on propagation. We illustrate the results by a numerical example relating to an electromagnetic Gaussian Schell-model beam. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Optics Communications

Volume

246

Issue/Number

1-3

Publication Date

1-1-2005

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

35

Last Page

43

WOS Identifier

WOS:000226896600007

ISSN

0030-4018

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