Measurement of the State of Polarization

Tugrul Hakioglu

The operational approach to the measurement of phase studied by Noh, Fouger\`es, and Mandel [Phys. Rev. A 45, 424 (1992); 46, 2840 (1992); Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 2579 (1993); Phys. Rev. A 47, 4535 (1993)] is applied to the measurement of the state of polarization of fully polarized light. Operational counterparts of the quantum Stokes parameters are introduced and their fluctuations are examined. It is shown that if the polarized field is weak, the measured fluctuations are influenced not only by the quantum properties of the source field but also that of the measurement. This character is reflected on the measured probability distributions of the parameters of polarization, which are also investigated independently for the fully polarized coherent states and the Fock states as the initial field strength is varied. Finally, connection between the operational approach to the measurement of polarization and the su(2) interferometry is examined.

Gunnar G. Bjork, Jonas Söderholm, Luis Lorenzo Sánchez-Soto +4 more

Anonymous

Omar Gamel, Daniel F. V. James

There has been much discussion in the literature about rival measures of classical polarization in three dimensions. We gather and compare the various proposed measures of polarization, creating a geometric representation of the polarization state space in the process. We use majorization, previously used in quantum information, as a criterion to establish a partial ordering on the polarization state space. Using this criterion and other considerations, the most useful polarization measure in three dimensions is found to be one dependent on the Bloch vector decomposition of the polarization matrix.

Roshita Ramkhalawon, Thomas G. Brown, Miguel Angel Alonso

We describe and analyze a method by which an optical polarization state is mapped to an image sensor. When placed in a Bayesian framework, the analysis allows a priori information about the polarization state to be introduced into the measurement. We show that when such a measurement is applied to a single photon, it eliminates exactly one fully polarized state, offering an important insight about the information gained from a single photon polarization measurement.

Vsevolod V. Balashov, Alexei N. Grum-Grzhimailo, Nikolai M. Kabachnik