ERIC Number: EJ901518
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Sep
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0143-0807
EISSN: N/A
Optical Field-Strength Polarization of Two-Mode Single-Photon States
Linares, J.; Nistal, M. C.; Barral, D.; Moreno, V.
European Journal of Physics, v31 n5 p991-1005 Sep 2010
We present a quantum analysis of two-mode single-photon states based on the probability distributions of the optical field strength (or position quadrature) in order to describe their quantum polarization characteristics, where polarization is understood as a significative confinement of the optical field-strength values on determined regions of the two-mode optical field-strength plane. We will show that the mentioned probability distributions along with the values of quantum Stokes parameters allow us to characterize the polarization of a two-mode single-photon state, in an analogous way to the classical case, and to distinguish conceptually between mixture and partially polarized quantum states; in this way, we propose a simple definition of the quantum polarization degree based on the recent concept of distance measure to an unpolarized distribution, which gives rise to a depolarization degree equivalent to an overlapping between the probability distribution of the quantum state and a non-polarized two-mode Gaussian distribution. The work is particularly intended to university physics teachers and graduate students as well as to physicists and specialists concerned with the issue of optical polarization. (Contains 5 figures.)
Descriptors: Probability, Graduate Students, Science Instruction, Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Molecular Structure, College Science, Equations (Mathematics)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A