Abstract
The two-point counterparts of the traditional Stokes parameters, which are called the coherence Stokes parameters, have recently been extensively used for assessing the coherence properties of random electromagnetic light beams. In this work, we highlight their importance by emphasizing two features associated with them. First, the role of polarization in electromagnetic coherence is significantly elucidated when the coherence Stokes parameters are used. Second, the normalized coherence Stokes parameters should be regarded as the true electromagnetic counterparts of the normalized scalar-field correlation coefficient.
Highlights
By considering two example situations in the electromagnetic context, Young’s double-pinhole interference, and the van Cittert–Zernike theorem, we demonstrate that the use of coherence Stokes parameters greatly facilitates the treatment and makes the polarization-coherence connection highly transparent
Six different correlation functions, each related to a different polarization state, can be used to express the coherence Stokes parameters appearing in Equation (3)
We highlighted the role of the coherence Stokes parameters in the description of electromagnetic coherence
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Electromagnetic description of light fields is playing an increasingly larger role in modern photonics where optical near fields and other highly nonparaxial situations involving, e.g., optical microcavities, photonic crystal elements, plasmonic structures, evanescent waves, and high-numerical-aperture arrangements are often encountered [1]. This trend reflects the development of optical coherence theory, whose formulation within the electromagnetic domain has been active in recent years [2,3,4,5].
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