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Light Polarization and Stokes Parameters
​
degree of linear polarization (0 ≤ DOLP ≤ 1)
0.848
orientation of ellipse (0 ≤ α ≤ 180°)
59.4
handedness
left
right
polarization ellipse
Poincaré sphere
S
x
=
-0.41
,
S
y
=
0.74
,
S
z
=
0.53
The polarization state of an electromagnetic wave can conveniently be described by a set of Stokes parameters. On the left, the polarization ellipse describes the motion of the optical electric field (
E
H
,
E
V
iΔϕ
e
) in a plane transverse to the light propagation direction. On the right are the corresponding Stokes parameters defined in terms of intensity difference measurements
S
x
=
I
H
-
I
V
=
2
E
H
-
2
E
V
,
S
y
=
I
-45°
-
I
+45°
=2
E
H
E
V
cos(Δϕ)
,
S
z
=
I
L
-
I
R
=2
E
H
E
V
sin(Δϕ)
,
where the intensities of the polarization components (
H
: horizontal,
V
: vertical, ±45
°
: along diagonals,
L
: circular left,
R
: circular right) are normalized to the total light intensity. The parameters that you can vary are the orientation of the ellipse, its degree of linear polarization
DOLP=
I
max
-
I
min
I
max
+
I
min
, where
I
max
and
I
min
are the intensities measured along the major and minor axes, and its handedness (direction of rotation). For 100% polarized light, the endpoint of the Stokes vector
S
=(
S
x
,
S
y
,
S
z
)
lies on a unit sphere called the Poincaré sphere.
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RELATED LINKS
Polarization (
ScienceWorld
)
PERMANENT CITATION
"
Light Polarization and Stokes Parameters
" from
the Wolfram Demonstrations Project
 
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/LightPolarizationAndStokesParameters/
Contributed by: Gianni Di Domenico and Antoine Weis
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