Radiation phase and Stokes parameters

Luis Lorenzo Sánchez-Soto, Alfredo Luis

Edward Collett

The classical Stokes polarization parameters are extended to treat quantum systems. This is accomplished by using the semiclassical radiation theory and considering only radiation by the dipole mechanism. The identification of the Stokes parameters with the density matrix elements is noted. The Stokes parameters for a number of familiar quantum systems which undergo dipole radiation are then calculated.

Sune R. Svanberg

A.S. Shumovsky, Özgür Esat Müstecaplıoğlu

For a dipole radiation, the set of generalized Stokes parameters and corresponding Stokes operators are discussed. A qualitatively new behavior of quantum fluctuations of the Stokes parameters is predicted. The possibility to check this behavior in the eight-port operational measurement is shown.

Sotirios A. Hadjiagapiou

A.S. Shumovsky, Özgür Esat Müstecaplıoğlu, Mithat Ünsal

It is shown that the description of polarization based on quantization of classical Stokes parameters is incomplete in quantum domain. For example, the polarization of the electric dipole radiation of the atomic or molecular transitions is described by nine generators of the SU(3) subalgebra in the Weyl-Heisenberg algebra of photons, in other words, by nine independent Stokes operators instead of four dependent classical Stokes parameters. Although some of the Stokes operators have one and the same averages, they describe absolutely different physical quantities with strongly different quantum fluctuations. The quantum polarization properties of the electric dipole and quadrupole radiation are examined as a function of distance for the near, intermediate, and far zones. Application of results in the near-field optics and quantum entanglement research is discussed.