Statistics of narrow-band partially polarized light

Abstract

A complete single-point statistical description of a narrow-band partially polarized optical field is developed in terms of the 2-D Period-Averaged Probability Density Function (PA-PDF) of the electrical field vector. This statistic can be measured using the coherent (heterodyne) detection. PA-PDF carries more information about the partially-polarized light than the traditional Stokes vector. For a simple Gaussian partially polarized field the PA-PDF depends on 13 real parameters in contrast to the four parameters of the Stokes vector or coherence tensor